Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya just did what many saw coming, but few could predict openly.
He has walked away from Eugene Wamalwa’s DAP-Kenya party, citing those ever-convenient “irreconcilable differences,” despite his move being about survival and the cold mathematics of 2027.
Natembeya is no political novice, and he didn’t rise through the ranks of provincial administration by being sentimental. He knows that in politics, you either grow or you get buried. And in DAP-K, the ceiling is so low that it is suffocating the Trans Nzoia county boss.
Ever since its inception in 2021, DAP-Kenya has become a Bukusu boys’ club masquerading as a national political party.
Party Leader Eugene Wamalwa? Bukusu. Deputy Party Leader George Natembeya? Bukusu. Another deputy, Wafula Athanas? Bukusu. Mumias East MP Peter Salasya? Bukusu. Secretary-General Eseli Simiyu? Bukusu. Chairperson, Mr. Muchele? You guessed it, Bukusu.
Look, there’s nothing inherently wrong with ethnic solidarity. Politics in Kenya has always been a tribal chess game. But when a party that claims national ambitions looks like a clan meeting, questions must be asked.
Where is the inclusivity and regional balance? How do you sell a national agenda when your entire top brass could hold a party caucus at a family reunion?
For Natembeya, a man with gubernatorial credentials and national ambitions, staying in DAP-K would be like trying to stretch in a matatu. It would be so uncomfortable, restrictive, and ultimately pointless.
To put it quite frankly, DAP-K was never meant to be the next Jubilee or ODM. It was one of several briefcase parties hastily assembled by outgoing Cabinet Secretaries from the Uhuru Kenyatta era as they left State House.
Natembeya himself rode to the governorship on the back of political zoning, a gentleman’s agreement brokered under pressure, with Raila Odinga reluctantly blessing the arrangement after being cornered by Uhuru’s minions with their briefcase party. It was transactional politics at its finest.
But 2027, Natembeya knows, is a different beast. Without zoning, without the Uhuru machinery, and without the Handshake-era goodwill, DAP-K is staring at electoral irrelevance.
Then enter Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna factor in the next polls.
Natembeya is reportedly angling to align himself with Sifuna’s political orbit.
Natembeya’s strategists feel Sifuna has the media presence, the intellectual heft, and the cross-regional appeal that DAP-K’s ethnic concentration could never deliver.
