Former Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa
A UDA founding member walks out in tears — and the ripples reach all the way to 2027
By Fatuma Ali
Former Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa Thursday quit the United Democratic Alliance, the party she helped found, citing humiliation, political marginalisation and broken promises — and immediately began talks with opposition figures eyeing her considerable influence in Kilifi County ahead of the 2027 general election.
Standing before journalists, Jumwa was unsparing. “From today, Aisha Jumwa Katana is no longer a member of the United Democratic Alliance. This decision is not an act of anger. It is an act of conscience,” she said. Fighting back tears, she said she was among the founders of UDA but no longer held any position in government — not even that of a sweeper — yet the President wanted her to campaign for his re-election on the promise of a Cabinet slot.
She claimed she had been turned away from State House during a meeting between the President and Coast leaders, and that her attempts to have grievances addressed by President William Ruto had repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. The specific grievance driving her exit was the gubernatorial race: Jumwa says pressure from broad-based coalition leaders to block a UDA candidate for the Kilifi governorship left her with no reason to stay.
The day after her resignation, Siaya Governor James Orengo visited Jumwa at her Kakuyuni home in Kilifi County, formally welcoming her to the Linda Mwananchi movement — a fast-growing opposition outfit that has been making inroads along the Coast and in Western Kenya. Orengo offered her a principal position, describing her as “a courageous leader who has demonstrated the ability to mobilise people and articulate issues affecting wananchi.” Jumwa has not yet committed, saying she is still consulting before announcing her next political home.
Her departure adds to a growing list of senior politicians who have recently exited UDA, including former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi, Nyandarua Governor Moses Kiarie Badilisha and Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro — a pattern that points to fractures inside the ruling coalition that are widening, not narrowing, as 2027 approaches.
For Kilifi, Jumwa’s next move matters enormously. She has built a support base spanning local government, Parliament and the national executive over nearly three decades in politics, first entering elective office at just 22 years old. A politician of that reach, now unmoored from the ruling party and courted by the opposition, is precisely the kind of figure who can redraw a county’s political map.
She has made one thing clear: she intends to contest the Kilifi governorship regardless of which party she chooses. The party may still be undecided. The ambition is not.
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