Editor's Review
The senator was cautioned against many opportunists who are singing him praises now and who may eventually impede his political ambition.
Saboti MP Caleb Amisi has cautioned Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna to beware of political conmanship in his fold, noting that some of those now gathered around him want his name more than they would want his political ambitions to materialise.
Sifuna currently aligns with the Linda Mwananchi group and has been fronted as the formation's presidential candidate for the 2027 general election.
Amisi, who has long claimed to be the original architect of the Linda Mwananchi initiative, drew on his own experience in the run-up to the 2017 vote to make the case, saying he had learned the lessons the hard way and wanted Sifuna to learn them much easily.
"No one warned me. So I will warn my brother," he said.
"When I warn my brother about political conmanship, it is because I have lived it. When I started, I had no one to teach me how this game is played. I learned it the hard way, and I would like him to learn it the easy way."
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Amisi, who is currently the party leader of People's Renaissance Movement (PM), recalled having won the ODM nomination for Saboti in 2017 but found that the certificate was not enough to secure the party's backing.
"I won the ODM nomination for Saboti, beating my opponent. I had the certificate. It still wasn't enough. ODM wasn't popular in my area, and a veteran politician from Western in the same coalition was lobbying Baba to back his own party's candidate, arguing it was the only way the coalition could win the seat," he said.
He described this as one of the harsher realities of the game.
"That is coalition politics. For many candidates, it is the cruelest part of the game," he said.
The MP said he later learnt of a plan at a rally in Trans Nzoia, where the veteran politician would call his own candidate to the podium, endorse him and steer the late Raila Odinga into doing the same.
"So I thought fast. When the candidate was called up, I stood up too. The crowd went wild. Everything backfired," Mr Amisi recalled.
He said the move won him the late ODM leader's admiration and changed his political fortunes.
"Baba later told me how proud he was of my political astuteness. That is how I became the first ODM MP for Saboti, and the only one in all of Trans Nzoia. I was 29. That is how I earned Baba's respect and became kijana wake," he said.
Amisi noted that he now sees a similar pattern around Sifuna, whose profile has risen sharply.
He questioned why a majority of those close to Sifuna are forming their individual political parties instead of building a homogeneous movement around him.
"I tell you this because I see the same pattern again. My brother's star is shining, and I fear that some who stand around him want his name more than they want him well. Look at the political parties that have since emerged. I have said so before, and I say it once more for the record. They call me names for it. I will not answer in kind," he said.
Amisi counselled Sifuna to reconsider the initial agenda of Linda Mwananchi, shake off opportunists and reunite with those who believed in him when no one else did.
"Brother, you do not have to go through it to learn. Baba raised enough soldiers, and our combined lessons are simply unbwogable. My door is open. Let us go back to where we started. Together, we would be unbwogable," he said.
