Ol Kalou by-election: Inside Linda Mwananchi’s dilemma ahead of their tour
By Mabonga Makhanu, July 8, 2026As the Linda Mwananchi brigade heads to Ol Kalou Constituency on Sunday, July 12, 2026, amid intensified and heated by-election campaigns, the one-billion-dollar question lingering in the minds of many is which opposition party candidate—Democracy for Citizens (DCP), Jubilee, or the People’s Renaissance Movement (PRM)—the movement will endorse.
The movement, through its spokesperson and Suba South MP Caroli Omondi, recently announced that it intends to back one of the opposition candidates in the upcoming Ol Kalou mini-poll.
He further stated that the Edwin Sifuna-led movement does not want to take sides within the opposition, emphasising the need for a united front behind one candidate. According to Omondi, the opposition must win the Ol Kalou by-election and defeat the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) candidate.
“We do not want to take sides in the by-election. The best option is for the opposition to agree on one candidate,” Omondi said.
“We have encouraged the parties that are in the opposition, DCP, Jubilee, and Renaissance, that they should find a way of giving out now the clear instruction that they have one candidate,” he said.
“So that you know, as Linda Mwananchi, we don’t want to go there and take sides, yeah, but if there’s one person from the opposition, it’s easy; we will go and campaign for that person, and I’m very sure we will win Ol Kalou.”
However, the matter remains in limbo since the United Opposition has yet to agree on which candidate will carry the opposition flag. The coalition is still experiencing a friendly contest despite earlier assurances by its principals that they would settle on one candidate, a decision that has yet to materialise.
PRM factor
It also remains unclear whether the Linda Mwananchi movement would consider endorsing the PRM candidate.
Despite the uncertainty, the Linda Mwananchi team is expected to tour Nyandarua County with several stopovers across Ol Kalou Constituency. The visit will mark the movement’s second tour of the Mt Kenya region after the Thika chapter, considered former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua’s political stronghold.
The movement has previously announced plans to intensify its political engagements in the vote-rich Mt Kenya region, with another rally in Meru expected to be hosted by former Governor Kawira Mwangaza.
Linda Mwananchi’s Mt Kenya visits
The team has defended its continued visits to the region, saying they are meant to appreciate the more than one million votes Raila Odinga received in Mt Kenya during the 2022 general election, describing it as an unprecedented achievement for the veteran opposition leader.
The planned tour also comes at a time when Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata has repeatedly urged Linda Mwananchi team leader Edwin Sifuna to engage former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
According to Kang’ata, if the Nairobi Senator wants to build a formidable national political movement, he must first engage regional leaders because, in his view, all politics is local.
Linda Mwananchi and the United Opposition merger
The developments also come amid growing signs that the United Opposition and the Linda Mwananchi movement could eventually work together in their shared bid to unseat President William Ruto in the 2027 General Election.
The Sifuna-led team has maintained that, at the appropriate time, it will sit down with the United Alternative Government to discuss how the opposition can approach the 2027 elections as a united force, arguing that unity remains the best chance of defeating President Ruto.