Lugari MP Ayub Savula has said efforts by "outsiders" to divide the Western region leadership for personal gain will fail this time.
He and other leaders on Saturday cautioned Luhyas against being used by external forces to 'balkanise' the community and frustrate its efforts to ascend to the power, saying they will soon become politically irrelevant.
Savula said those from the community seeking to be president must establish national networks, adding that no single tribe in Kenya can produce a president.
They spoke in Likuyani during the burial of Ebby Kavai who had been the Kakamega county Investments Corporation CEO.
The Constitution requires that one must receive 50 per cent plus one vote and garner at least 25 per cent of votes in half of the 47 counties to be declared a winner.
"This time around, we are more united than ever before and outsiders will not be allowed to use us again," he said.
ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford Kenya counterpart Moses Wetang'ula have announced they will work together in 2022.
They have been riding in the same vehicle during public functions as a show of unity.
ODM and Jubilee MPs from the region have been accused of frustrating the region’s unity and drive to ascend to power by supporting outsiders.
Kimilili MP and Ford Kenya secretary general Eseli Simiyu said the Kalenjin community — "that has been in leadership for 24 years and is now deputising Uhuru"– must also be ready to support others.
Eseli said the Luhya community should not fall victim to psychological warfare engineered by those who don't mean well for them.
“They want to scatter us as a community so they can block us from power but we’re saying that we’re alert this time around and will not fall prey to their machinations," Eseli said.
Savula called on the national government to consider setting up a national benevolent fund to ease the burden on those who lose their loved ones.
He said it was unfair that taxpayer’s meet the cost of funerals of senior state officers yet no one bothers when 'lesser ordinary' people die.
Edited by R.Wamochie
