Sifuna’s Linda Mwananchi transition faces legal challenge ahead of Friday’s delegates conference

NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 12 – The Linda Mwananchi Movement is set to formalise its transition from The Equitable Party (TEP) during a National Delegates Conference scheduled for November 13, 2026. The conference will consider a proposed change of the party’s name and ratify other decisions necessary to complete the transition. In a notice, the party clarified that participation would be restricted to designated delegates drawn from TEP members who were registered by the time the NDC notice was published. It added that each county had been allocated a specific number of delegates based on its registered membership, with the quotas required to be strictly observed. However, the planned conference faces a legal challenge, with a petition filed before the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) seeking to stop the meeting. The case, filed by Emmanuel Wellingtone Khamala, who describes himself as a registered TEP member, challenges the legality of the party’s leadership and delegate selection processes. Through his lawyer, Khamala argues that TEP unveiled Sifuna as its party leader on October 4, before the party’s executive allegedly resolved to change its name four days later without adequate consultation with members. The petitioner further claims that members raised objections in a letter dated October 28, ahead of the movement’s launch on October 30, during which leaders were unveiled without members being given an opportunity to contest for the positions. Khamala wants the PPDT to suspend the November 13 conference pending the hearing and determination of his complaint. He argues that members were excluded from key party decisions, leadership structures were constituted without elections, and delegates were not drawn from duly elected party structures. The complaint has been filed against TEP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and National Elections Board, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) and the Political Parties Liaison Committee (PPLC). Sifuna has been named as an interested party.