PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta has moved to wrest Western Kenya from Raila Odinga’s political grip.
It is understood that the President and Deputy William Ruto have decided to focus their attention on the Cord strongholds, among them Western Kenya, as they prepare for the next election.
Both former Prime Minister Raila and President Kenyatta have identified a number of people they plan to work with as they fight for the Luhya vote.
The Luhya community is the second most populous ethnic group in Kenya after the Kikuyu.
Kenyatta wants to use former National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende, Cabinet Secretary nominee Eugene Wamalwa, former ministers Soita Shitanda and Cyrus Jirongo, Alfred Khangati and Senator George Khaniri.
Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka, who has just taken over New Ford Kenya, has also been roped into the President's team.
Raila on his part will work with his co-principal Moses Wetang’ula, ODM secretary general Ababu Namwamba, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, Funyula MP Paul Otuoma and Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale to spearhead his election campaign in 2017.
Marende and his group have already registered a new party, the United Democratic Party, which they hope to use to rally support from Western Kenya and deliver it to Jubilee ahead of the next election.
"Promises have been made to this group. Already, Wamalwa has been nominated to the Cabinet, Marende is the Kenya Power chairman, Shitanda too has a board appointment. The idea is to empower them so they can effectively campaign for the President”, said a senior State House official aware of the scheme.
Raila is also planning regular and extensive tours of Kakamega, Bungoma and Busia counties in the coming months as a way of maintaining his support. He has already held meetings with some of the local leaders while Uhuru and Ruto plan to alternately visit Western Kenya.
In the last elections, areas perceived to be strongholds of Jubilee had registered significantly more voters than those perceived to be Cord strongholds.
Voter turnout in the Jubilee strongholds of Central, Rift Valley and parts of Central-eastern handed Kenyatta victory against Raila.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission final numbers, the Cord areas of Nyanza, Western and Coast did not register most of the eligible voters and even those who registered did not turn up to vote for Raila to the last man.
Raila has already launched an initiative to reverse the infamous “tyranny of numbers” strategy unleashed by Jubilee in 2013. He wants to ensure that most of Cord’s 9.4 million potential voters in its strongholds and mixed support areas are registered well before the August 2017 General Election.
“We want all those eligible voters to register early enough and come out in large numbers to vote”, said Raila at the weekend in Western Kenya.
The voting population is expected to grow, with those who were 15 years old or above in 2013 becoming eligible to register as voters. It is estimated that about 22 million Kenyans will be eligible to register (40% of the estimated adult population) and vote in 2017, out of whom about 12 million will be from Cord strongholds and 10 million from Jubilee strongholds.
“Jubilee will need to reach out to the people of the Western Kenya and Coast areas, which are perceived Cord strongholds, for them to win comfortably in 2017 in the first round”, said political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi.
The strategy by both Uhuru and Raila seems to be to ignore Amani Coalition leader Musalia Mudavadi, who performed dismally in his backyard and suffered a blow after some of his allies, such as Khaniri, deserted him for UDP.
Mudavadi has accused Marende and his group of plotting to destroy his presidential ambitions.