ODM leader Raila Odinga has cautioned elected and aspiring politicians of the party against engaging in early 2027 campaigns saying it is detrimental to the current elected leaders.
Speaking on Wednesday in Nairobi, the Opposition chief said he has noticed a lot of interest in the party with aspiring and sitting politicians across the country already having hit the campaign four years from the next general elections.
"It is a development which is actually retrogressive in some parts of the country. The issue of early campaigns."
He said this phenomenon is most rampant in the Coast, Upper Eastern, Northeastern, Nairobi, Nyanza and Western Kenya regions.
He said it's unfortunate that some elected party members are already thinking about the 2027 elections barely a year after being elected into office at the August 2022 elections.
"We have four more years to go and this is bringing a lot of tension among our members. People are campaigning they want to be MCAs, people who were elected MCAs campaigning to be MPs. They have hardly served the people to qualify," Raila said.
He spoke while issuing the party's official position on the bipartisan dialogue report.
Raila reminded current officeholders that their election to higher offices come the 2027 polls will be dependent on their track record during their current term.
"We have people elected as Members of Parliament who are campaigning to be governors. You have hardly served the people as a Member of Parliament, yet you have already formed a committee for you to campaign to be a governor."
The former Prime Minister asked those politicians to shelve their ambitions and allow those elected in their respective positions to serve the people.
"Give them the support they need so that they either succeed or they fail. In a normal democracy, campaigning starts one year before the elections," he said.
"You can see even in the US, people are declaring their candidature for senators, for governorships and for the presidency because the election is next year," he added.
The ODM leader said the early campaigns are generating a lot of enmity among party members whereas some hopefuls have hired youth who are causing a lot of tension.
"This should end!" he said.
