Some Western leaders have rubbished a meeting by elected leaders from the region in Kajiado county on Friday, terming it as divisive.
They said the meeting portrayed the Luhya community as a grouping that could not speak in one voice.
The meeting at Cotu boss Francis Atwoli's residence declared Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Atwoli as the Luhya spokesmen.
ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi whom Atwoli installed as the Luhya spokesman in December 2016 and his Ford Kenya counterpart Moses Wetang'ula did not attend the meeting.
Wetang'ula on Friday said he and Mudavadi had formed a technical committee to come up with a strategy to achieve unity of the community ahead of the 2022 race.
The move indicates there are going to be parallel initiatives, one headed by Atwoli and another by Mudavadi, Oparanya and Wamalwa.
The Kajiado meeting was held on the day Mudavadi held talks with former Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth, Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua and former head of Civil Service Sally Kosgey in Nairobi.
Former Medical Services Minister Amukowa Anangwe said the meeting was disgraceful and self-serving in so far as it was not inclusive.
Anangwe said the meeting had an ulterior agenda against the very Luhya unity narrative the organisers purported to proclaim, especially "when those being picked as spokespersons are well known confidantes of ODM leader Raila Odinga."
"The meeting was so much about Luhya disunity than unity to serve the interests of Raila's 2022 bid while undermining any effort for a Luhya presidency," he said.
Anangwe said the only way Luhyas could redeem their image in Kenyan politics was by self-respect and not behaving like political touts propagating other people's interests.
Anangwe said Luhyas needed to rally behind one of their own to be on the negotiating table if the candidate does not win.
He said that Atwoli should desist from partisanship and lead from the front in the interest of the people.
Former Butere MP Andrew Toboso said Mudavadi and not Atwoli was well placed to lead any negotiations on behalf of the community.
He said the Friday meeting which excluded other leaders because of its hidden agenda sent a negative signal about the Luhya community to the rest of the country that they cannot speak in one voice.
"The meeting was trying to imply that Atwoli and company can hold their own political journey without Mudavadi or Wetang'ula and this is a dangerous position," he said.
"If we as a community have to talk to other political formations, we must have a singular voice and this is Mudavadi and not Atwoli. Atwoli has never been a politician and cannot midwife a Luhya presidency."
He said by flying in leaders to Kajiado, Atwoli was telling the whole country that the community was unable to sit at home and talk.
He said resolutions of the meeting recycled issues that had been discussed over and over.
Edited by Henry Makori
