Edwin Sifuna Blames Government for Insults Over Housing Debate and Gachagua Meeting

Equitable Party Leader Edwin Sifuna, a 2027 presidential hopeful, said on October 21 that officials in the Kenya Kwanza government respond to scrutiny of policies such as affordable housing with anger and personal insults, and he defended his recent meeting with former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

Speaking at the requiem mass for the late Ambassador Buridi Nabwera, Sifuna welcomed a cease-fire call by former Speaker Francis Ole Kaparo for an end to political insults and said, “The person standing in front of you is a victim and the recipient of the heaviest insults from everybody in government today, and I am happy that Ole Kaparo, as an elder statesman, has put out the call for everybody to stop insults in politics.”

He added, “I do not understand why everybody in the government is angry. People are upset. You ask questions about housing; they call you Mr Empty, instant coffee, mafala, they tell us that we have no agenda nor brains,” highlighting the nicknames he says have been used against him and his party.

President William Ruto has repeatedly mocked Sifuna, branding him “Mr Empty”, dismissing the Equitable Party as lacking substance, ridiculing his appearance at a concert featuring Congolese musician Koffi Olomide, and challenging his pledge to scrap the housing levy by arguing that doing so would threaten jobs created through the affordable housing programme.

Sifuna countered that the levy imposes deductions on salaried workers and promised to abolish it if elected in 2027, saying the levy harms ordinary Kenyans.

The meeting with former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua at Wamunyoro in Nyeri County on Tuesday attracted fresh criticism from government allies, prompting Sifuna to reject claims that a particular region should be off-limits for political association, stating, “Yesterday, some people saw me somewhere with someone, and somehow they are telling us that there is a region in this country where none of us is supposed to associate with.”

He vowed to restore the national unity felt in 1963, declaring, “I want to assure that we will restore the feeling that was in our country in 1963.”

Pauline Njoroge, Head of Communications for the Linda Mwananchi Movement, accused supporters of President Ruto of double standards, pointing to alleged abductions, killings and injuries of young Kenyans during protests and noting that Gachagua, as Deputy President, had condemned the brutality in a press conference in Mombasa.

Njoroge also recalled the 2024 Finance Bill controversy, saying Ruto pushed the legislation while Gachagua opposed it, and argued that the political divisions that emerged then marked a turning point that should not be forgotten.

Sifuna said his team will avoid further back-and-forth with government leaders, stating, “I want to make this clear. As Linda Mwananchi, it is not our intention to disrupt public meetings or funerals even if we are disrespected. When the insults come, we intend to draw back the debate to the issues of the day.”