Kenya’s opposition parties have forged an alliance to field single candidates in key by-elections, framing the move as a rehearsal for a unified assault on President William Ruto’s re-election in 2027.
The pact, sealed at a roundtable meeting in Nairobi on Monday, commits the coalition, including Wiper Democratic Movement, Democratic Action Party-Kenya (DAP-K) and Rigathi Gachagua’s Democratic for Citizens Party (DCP), to avoid infighting by presenting one nominee per contested seat.
The strategy aims to merge voter bases in opposition strongholds, preventing the splits that plagued the 2022 Azimio coalition.
In Magarini constituency, Wiper’s Samwel Kombe withdrew to back DCP’s Karisa Kenga, whose combined tally from recent polls promises a “sure winner”, Gachagua said.
In Malava, DCP’s Edgar Busiega stepped aside for DAP-K’s Seth Panyako, a decision informed by local surveys and brokered by Gachagua and DAP-K leader Eugene Wamalwa. Similar concessions were made in Narok Town Ward and Mbeere North, with Wiper ceding ground to DCP.
Gachagua, the former deputy president ousted in 2024, hailed the accord as “gracious” and a blueprint for national unity.
“The formula for getting a single presidential candidate to face President William Ruto is on course. What is happening in these by-elections is an adverse rehearsal,” he told reporters at the SKM command centre, flanked by Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka and Wamalwa. Musyoka, speaking from his Yatta farm last month, reinforced the front’s resilience.
“The team is building up strongly… no amount of propaganda will divide us.” Fred Matiang’i, the ex-interior minister, echoed calls for cohesion against “distractions”.
The November 27 polls, filling vacancies from deaths and petitions in constituencies like Magarini, Malava, Kasipul, Ugunja, Banisa and Mbeere North, plus Baringo Senate, test Kenya’s realignments.
The opposition’s unity jars with the “broad-based government” pact between Ruto’s UDA and Raila Odinga’s ODM, which has cross-endorsed candidates: ODM in Kasipul, Ugunja and Magarini; UDA in the rest.
