Moses Wetang’ula has never been a man who whispers his ambitions. On a Wednesday afternoon in Kabuchai, standing before a crowd at Sichei KMTC Grounds in Bungoma County, the National Assembly Speaker said it plainly: he is going for the presidency in 2032, and he intends to be the first person from the Mulembe community to sit in State House. No hedging, no diplomatic soft-pedaling, no “I will consult my people” theater that Kenyan politicians love so much.
This matters more than the usual political noise. The Mulembe nation, a collective identity broadly associated with the Luhya people of Western Kenya, has long been one of the country’s most populous communities and yet has never produced a president. That is not an accident. It is a story of fragmented politics, of leaders who cut deals at the last minute, of a region that has historically traded its electoral weight for cabinet seats and development promises that arrive late, if at all. Wetang’ula knows this history intimately because he has lived inside it, and now he is betting that he can rewrite it.
He framed his declaration in the language of legacy: “I will be ready to seek the presidency and make history by becoming the first son of Mulembe to lead Kenya, bringing my experience, energy and commitment to national service.” Those words landed in a specific political moment, just days after President William Ruto publicly suggested that he and the older generation of politicians would exit the stage together when his constitutional term ends in 2032. Ruto made that promise during a regional tour of the Gusii region, urging young Kenyans to back his administration in the 2027 general election while dangling the idea of a cleaner, younger political order by 2032.
Read that dynamic carefully. Ruto is essentially telling the country that 2032 belongs to a new generation, and Wetang’ula, who is not young by any political definition, is simultaneously raising his hand for that same 2032 slot. There is a tension there that neither man has addressed directly, and it is the kind of tension that defines Kenyan coalition politics: allies who smile warmly at each other while quietly positioning for the future.
For now, Wetang’ula is playing the loyal partner. He endorsed Ruto’s 2027 re-election bid at the same event where he announced his own 2032 ambitions, arguing that the President needs a second term to consolidate development gains in Western Kenya. He pointed to tangible projects as his evidence: a proposed Sh10 billion Level Six Hospital at Sichei, a Sh350 million Chwele Modern Market, and over Sh400 million channeled toward the struggling Nzoia Sugar Company. Roads, markets, healthcare infrastructure. The classic development pitch, delivered with the confidence of a man who understands that Western Kenya votes with its stomach as much as its heart.
But here is what young, politically aware Kenyans should sit with. Wetang’ula has been in national politics for decades. He has been a cabinet minister, a senator, a party leader, and now the Speaker of the National Assembly. He has the resume. What he has never had is the presidency, and his community has never had it either. The question is whether that shared hunger is enough to build a coalition around in 2032, or whether it will dissolve, as it has before, into the familiar pattern of last-minute deals and betrayed expectations.
The Mulembe community deserves a president. That is not a sentimental statement; it is a democratic one. But deserving something and getting it are two very different things in Kenyan politics, where ethnicity is a currency and alliances shift with the wind. Wetang’ula knows the terrain. He has navigated it long enough to know where the landmines are buried. Whether he has the political architecture to avoid them this time, and whether he can hold his community’s ambitions together long enough to reach 2032 intact, is the real story unfolding in Bungoma.
The declaration has been made. The clock is running. And for the first time in a long time, the Mulembe nation has a specific name, a specific year, and a specific promise attached to its presidential dream. What happens next is on all of us to watch.
