NLP Leader Tells Kitui Stadium Rally: ‘We Will Bargain, Not Beg’ Ahead of 2027
August 2026
National Liberal Party (NLP) leader Dr Augustus Muli told supporters at Kitui Stadium in Kitui town that his party is willing to work with either the national government or the opposition ahead of the 2027 General Election, but will not beg anyone for a political deal. More than 5,000 people turned out for the gathering, where Muli said NLP would talk to every political camp but would only sign onto an alliance that guarantees Ukambani’s interests, as Capital FM Africa reported.
“We are going to bargain and fight for our people,” Muli told the crowd, adding that the party was also willing to contest the election on its own if talks with either side collapsed.
Party’s Bargaining Position
Muli argued that engaging with the government should not be read as surrender, saying residents need tangible development with roughly a year left before the 2027 polls, Capital FM Africa’s coverage notes. He said the party had no objection to talking to state officials, including on security-related community programmes, as long as the conversation delivered real gains for the region.
At the close of the rally, NLP delegates passed a resolution stating the party would engage both the government and the opposition, but would not join any political formation unless the interests of the party and the wider Ukambani region were secured first. Citizen Digital’s report adds that delegates also agreed the party was prepared to run independently in 2027 if no acceptable deal materialises. The Kitui Stadium rally itself came about a month after that earlier resolution, giving Muli a public platform to restate the position before a home crowd.
Challenging Wiper’s Grip
NLP’s posture matters locally because it is being read as a direct challenge to Wiper, the party that has long dominated Ukambani politics under Kalonzo Musyoka. The Star’s report notes that NLP’s grassroots mobilisation is testing that dominance, offering Ukambani voters an alternative political home for the first time in years. Earlier in the year, Muli had taken his campaign to town halls across Machakos, Kitui and Makueni counties, with the party claiming to have signed up close to one million members in the region, a figure Capital FM’s earlier reporting cites from the party’s own recruitment drive rather than an independently verified count.
That expansion has not gone unnoticed by the established opposition. The United Opposition’s decision to stage rallies of its own in Makueni, Kitui and Machakos was widely seen locally as a response to NLP’s rising profile in the region, based on the Star’s coverage of the rivalry.
Opposition Unity Efforts
Muli has not limited his outreach to rallies. He has also pushed for cooperation with Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka on broader opposition unity, arguing that a divided Ukambani vote, estimated at more than two million ballots, risks losing influence in the next election cycle, per a separate Capital FM report on an NLP-PLP citizen engagement partnership. Under that partnership, NLP and the People’s Liberation Party have agreed to run joint dialogue forums targeting young people, women and small business owners to shape opposition policy ahead of 2027.
For Kitui traders and residents who packed the stadium, the immediate question is less about coalition arithmetic in Nairobi and more about whether any of these political conversations translate into roads, water projects or jobs before campaigns fully take over. With roughly a year to go, Muli has staked his party’s credibility on being able to extract those gains from whichever side blinks first, and Ukambani voters will be watching to see whether government, opposition or NLP itself makes the next move.
