The clamour for a merger between Amani National Congress (ANC) and Ford-Kenya parties was mooted to unify the vote-rich western region and have the Luhya vote in one basket.
This, according to leaders in the parties led by Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula, was meant to lock up the votes in a bid to have a better bargaining power in future elections.
INFLUENCE
The continued influence of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga and the fight by Deputy President William Ruto to make inroads in the vote-rich region has continued to divide local leaders ahead of the 2022 General Election.
Mr Odinga has on several occasions stated that he was the 13th grand child of Nabongo-Mumia, the revered Wanga king, and called on the regional leaders not to leave him out of the negotiations.
His continued influence in the region that has voted for him massively in the past three elections (2007, 2013 and 2017) has stood out to be a major threat to the ANC-Ford Kenya merger.
