Kitui Senator Wambua Stands Firm on His Kalonzo 2027 Prediction
August 2026
Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua, the Senate Deputy Minority Leader, is still telling anyone who will listen that Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka will beat President William Ruto in the 2027 presidential race. He has made the claim repeatedly in recent weeks, even as fresh opinion polling shows his party leader’s national support sliding while a rival opposition figure gains ground.
The senator’s confidence has not wavered despite the numbers. If anything, Wambua has become louder, positioning himself as the man with inside knowledge of what opposition principals have agreed behind closed doors.
Wambua’s Opposition Flag Claim
Wambua has told supporters that opposition principals, including Democracy for Citizens Party leader Rigathi Gachagua, have already settled on Kalonzo as their joint 2027 candidate. Two weeks earlier, Wambua, described as a close ally of Kalonzo, had claimed the coalition would name its candidate within two weeks. He said the opposition principals had already agreed on Kalonzo’s candidature and that Gachagua was using his Wamunyoro consultations simply to prepare his own supporters for that decision.
Kalonzo himself appeared to back up his senator’s account at a public event in his Tseikuru backyard, telling the crowd that Wambua had shared accurate, privileged information. But the arrangement has not landed smoothly everywhere. The-star.co.ke’s report noted that some leaders rubbished the plan between Gachagua and Kalonzo as a “selfish boardroom” agreement and vowed to reject it. That pushback suggests the opposition’s unity talk is not as settled as Wambua’s public statements make it sound.
Denying Ruto Meeting Rumours
Wambua has also spent recent weeks knocking down a separate and more explosive claim: that Kalonzo secretly met President Ruto to discuss a political arrangement ahead of 2027. Speaking in Nairobi, the Kitui senator dismissed the reports outright. “For the record, my party leader has not had any such meeting with the President,” Wambua said, in remarks carried by Kahawatungu.
Per Kahawatungu’s coverage, Wambua said the online footage fuelling the rumours was old, actually filmed in March 2024, when Kalonzo, then a National Dialogue Committee co-chair, presented that team’s report to the President as part of his official duties. Wambua argued the timing had nothing to do with 2027 politics at all. He also pointed to Wiper’s October 2025 Uhuru Park delegates’ conference, where the party unanimously endorsed Kalonzo as its sole presidential pick, as proof of where the Wiper leader’s loyalties still lie.
Sifuna’s Kitui Visit
The senator picked up an unlikely ally during a visit to Kitui County by ODM Secretary-General and Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna. Sifuna used the trip to insist he would not abandon politicians he considers the late Raila Odinga’s most loyal friends, naming both Kalonzo and Wambua directly. “Kalonzo walked with Raila in 2013, 2017 and 2022,” Sifuna said, as reported by the-star.co.ke.
The-star.co.ke’s report adds that Sifuna also used the Kitui stop to back Wambua’s own ambition to become the next Kitui governor, telling residents he hoped Wambua would achieve that goal. Sifuna’s remarks matter locally because they signal that a senior ODM figure sees value in publicly standing beside Kitui’s sitting senator, even as national ODM politics have grown tense over exactly this question of loyalty to Raila’s old allies.
Why the Numbers Matter
The polling backdrop explains some of the urgency behind Wambua’s messaging. A widely cited TIFA survey found that Kalonzo’s support had fallen sharply, with the Daily Nation reporting that Kalonzo, who stood at 25 percent in November 2025, has now dropped to 13 percent, while Sifuna’s own numbers have climbed fast among ODM supporters. That shift gives Wambua’s repeated public predictions an added edge, since they double as an attempt to keep Kalonzo’s name at the centre of opposition conversation while the numbers tell a more complicated story.
Whether the opposition actually names a single flagbearer within the timeframe Wambua keeps promising remains the open question hanging over all of this. Kitui voters, who have watched their senator become one of Kalonzo’s most prominent defenders nationally, will be watching just as closely to see whether that loyalty pays off in an actual coalition announcement, or simply in another round of claims and denials.
