NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 24 — In a political landscape dominated by established regional kingpins, Augustus Kyalo Muli is betting that Ukambani’s voters are ready for a different proposition: a political vehicle that answers to the region first and chooses its national allies later.
The National Liberal Party (NLP) politician is positioning himself as neither a supporter of President William Ruto nor an appendage of Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, as he seeks to build a regional base ahead of the 2027 General Election.
“I am not Ruto’s proxy. I am not Kalonzo’s spanner boy,” Muli says.
The declaration captures the political gamble behind his emerging campaign to challenge Kalonzo’s long-standing dominance in Ukambani — and raises a broader question: can Muli pull a Sifuna-Nyoro in Ukambani by turning a new political vehicle, generational messaging and regional identity into national bargaining power?
Two names have increasingly featured in discussions about a new generation of political leaders: Edwin Sifuna, through the Linda Mwananchi movement after leaving ODM, and Ndindi Nyoro, who on August 17 formally left UDA to become party leader of the People’s Party of Kenya (PPK).
Their political approaches are different, but the underlying formula is similar: an independent political vehicle, generational positioning, regional identity and an attempt to convert local support into national bargaining power.
Muli is attempting to apply that formula in Ukambani through NLP.
The comparison comes as established regional political structures face growing pressure ahead of the 2027 elections.
In Mt Kenya, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s political influence is being challenged from several directions. Critics including Justin Muturi, Peter Munya and Lenny Kivuti have questioned efforts to consolidate regional parties under the Democratic Congress Party (DCP), while Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has emerged as another centre of influence.
Nyoro’s decision to lead PPK rather than fold into DCP or remain in UDA has added another layer to the region’s political fragmentation.
In Ukambani, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, who has dominated Kamba politics for two decades, is facing what appears to be one of the more structured challenges to his regional influence in recent years.
This time, the challenge is coming from within the region’s political establishment, through Muli’s NLP.
NLP Secretary-General Omondi K’Oyoo says the party has more than 200,000 registered members in Ukambani, including about 130,000 in Kitui County, and close to half a million nationally.
The figures are party claims and would require independent verification.
But the more immediate political signal came on August 13, when Muli addressed a large gathering at Kitui Stadium. Party officials put attendance at more than 6,000.
The gathering came days after Wiper hosted Sifuna at the same venue in an effort to boost its own mobilisation.
The turnout has since become part of the political conversation around Muli’s growing profile, although attendance at a single rally does not by itself establish a durable political base.
More significant is Muli’s political proposition.
The politician, who intends to contest the Kitui Central parliamentary seat in 2027, has increasingly presented himself as an independent alternative to both Ruto’s administration and the Kalonzo-led Wiper establishment.
His “Ruto’s proxy” and “Kalonzo’s spanner boy” framing is a deliberate rejection of the traditional Kenyan political model in which emerging regional politicians operate under an established kingpin.
Muli instead describes himself as “Ukambani’s insurance policy” — a politician who wants the region to negotiate nationally from a position of collective strength rather than dependence on a particular coalition or presidential candidate.
In an open letter to Kalonzo, Muli argued that Ukambani’s roughly two million voters have repeatedly been used as bargaining currency during national elections without securing commensurate political returns.
His proposed Ukambani Unity Pact 2027 takes that argument a step further: regional unity should come before a decision on which national coalition to support.
That is where his strategy most closely resembles the approaches of Sifuna and Nyoro.
All three have chosen to build political vehicles outside the established parties that have traditionally dominated their respective political spaces.
Sifuna has sought to use Linda Mwananchi to advance a new political identity after his break with ODM. Nyoro has taken control of PPK after leaving UDA. Muli is attempting to use NLP to establish an independent base in Ukambani.
But their political circumstances remain different.
Sifuna has built his profile through national politics and the Senate, while Nyoro comes with a strong record in economic policy and parliamentary leadership.
Muli’s immediate challenge is more foundational: turning regional mobilisation into an organisation capable of competing electorally and negotiating nationally.
That is where his clan-based political networks could become important.
While Nyoro has the Budget Committee pedigree and Sifuna has the Senate platform, Muli has the Anzauni Clan — and in Ukambani, clan remains an important building block of political mobilisation.
“NLP will work with either Opposition or Government. But we are not going to beg. We are going to bargain,” Muli has said.
That positioning could become one of his biggest assets — or one of his biggest vulnerabilities.
The broader opposition landscape provides an additional opening.
The opposition is displaying competing political currents, with Gachagua, Kalonzo, Eugene Wamalwa and Justin Muturi appearing together on some platforms, while figures such as Fred Matiang’i, Martha Karua and Peter Munya have pursued other political engagements. Nyoro has meanwhile aligned PPK with the opposition.
With several coalition and power-sharing arrangements being discussed but no settled national formula, regional politicians with their own parties have considerable room to negotiate.
That uncertainty is precisely where emerging political movements can thrive.
For Muli, the next major test could come on October 3 during the Anzauni Cultural Festival and his planned coronation as Chief of the Anzauni Chiefdom in Kitui.
Organisers expect a large turnout from across Kenya and the diaspora. Politically, however, the event will be watched for another reason: whether Muli can translate organisational claims into sustained mass mobilisation.
In Ukambani, numbers matter.
So, can Muli pull a Sifuna-Nyoro in Ukambani?
Perhaps the more important question is whether he can turn the emerging appetite for generational change into a durable political organisation built around NLP.
A year ago, such a challenge to the established political order might have seemed remote.
Today, Muli’s growing mobilisation is forcing the question into the political conversation.
Whether that represents the beginning of a genuine realignment — or another short-lived Kenyan political movement — will ultimately be decided at the ballot box in 2027.
