•According to the 2019 census, the Luhya community was estimated to have a population of about 6.82 million people.
•The Luhya leaders will also be looking into how they can acquire more elective seats at the County and National Assemblies.
Image: MAUREEN KINYANJUI
Bargaining power for the Nairobi elective seats has started as party nominations for the August 9 poll nears.
Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli will today be hosting some Luhya leaders at his Kajiado home to discuss matters concerning the Luhya community residing in Nairobi County.
The Luhya leaders, led by Westlands Mp Tim Wanyonyi and his counterpart from Makadara George Aladwa, will also be looking into how they can acquire more elective seats at the County and National Assemblies.
Confirming the meeting, Aladwa said he will be in attendance and the top of the agenda for the meeting will be the Luhya unity in Nairobi.
“Today, we are meeting our senior brother COTU SG Atwoli in Kajiado County at 11 am to discuss matters concerning Luhya community residing in Nairobi County and the August 9 General Election. We are also targeting to increase more MP and MCA seats,” he said.
Already, a section of the Luhya nation, identifying themselves as the Mulembe Grassroot Leaders, demanded last month that the Nairobi governor seat should be preserved for them ahead of the August 9, elections.
Led by Vincent Shimoli, the group from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, said Nairobi's top seat is their only bargaining power.
The grassroots leaders drawn from the city county's 85 wards endorsed Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi for the governor’s seat.
At the same time, they said that their community had been overshadowed in the past two general elections in Nairobi.
They said their presence had not been felt in the corridors of City Hall in the last 10 years.
The Luhya community has and continues to play an integral part in Kenya's politics due to its huge population.
According to the 2019 census, the community was estimated to have a population of about 6.82 million people, second to the Kikuyu community at 8.14 million people.
The Kalenjins came third at 6.35million.
Image: ANDREW KASUKU
Aladwa went further and stated that the Luhya community can only feel accommodated in the Azimio la Umoja government if one of their own is given the mantle to lead Nairobi, which controls over 60 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product ( GDP).
"We are saying that matters to do with Nairobi must be left to the Luhya community and there is no need to negotiate about it,” he said.
Aladwa, who is also a former mayor, said that the Luhya community has no problem voting for ODM presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga if he appoints a running mate from the Mt Kenya region.
"We have no problem voting for Raila because we love him but on the Nairobi issue, we are saying that we are not going to negotiate,” he noted.
On Monday, Aladwa and Wanyonyi held talks on Luhya unity and Nairobi County politics.
Wanyonyi is the only ODM party member who has declared an interest and launched his candidature for the county’s top seat.
Aladwa had also expressed interest but is yet to publicly declare his candidature.
Wanyonyi has attracted a massive team of supporters, including ODM party Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna, Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris, former Dagoretti South MP Dennis Waweru and former Prime Minister’s Wife Idah Odinga.
The first Governor of the City Evans Kidero is from the Luo community and was deputised by Jonathan Mueke, who hails from the Ukambani region.
The second administration saw Ukambani's son Mike Sonko take over and was deputised by Polycarp Igathe from the Mt. Kenya region.
With the Impeachment of Sonko, Governor Ann Kananu was sworn in as Nairobi's third Governor. She is from the Meru community in the larger Mt Kenya region.
In terms of Parliamentary seats, only two legislators are drawn from the Western region – Aladwa and Wanyonyi.
At the Senate, we have Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja who is also in the race to succeed Kananu.