On one map is the national opposition project, Linda Mwananchi, where he has publicly backed Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna’s presidential ambitions. On the other is Nairobi, where the Embakasi East MP is openly positioning himself for the governor’s seat currently held by Johnson Sakaja.
The latest twist came after Owino shared an official letter from the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) seeking to settle questions surrounding the Linda Mwananchi name and The Mwananchi Party.
According to the letter, the party changed its name from Muungano Party to The Mwananchi Party after an objection was withdrawn, with the Registrar confirming the change on September 10. Owino said the document was being shared so Kenyans could “see the official chronology of the name change.”
But behind the paperwork lies a bigger political question: can Babu simultaneously be an important engine of Sifuna’s presidential campaign while building his own Nairobi gubernatorial machine?
Owino insists there is no contradiction.
“I will support Sifuna as a presidential candidate in 2027. He is our presidential candidate,” he has said, promising to mobilise Nairobi for the senator. At the same time, he has asked Nairobians to elect him governor.
That balancing act has become particularly interesting because Linda Mwananchi itself is experiencing tensions over political parties and leadership ambitions. Media outlets have often reported widening cracks between Owino and Sifuna over the movement’s political vehicle, with both men believed to be pursuing separate electoral paths.
Political analysts have subtly offered a warning that goes beyond the personalities, arguing that “movements do not die at the hands of their enemies” but can falter when leaders confuse the popularity of a movement with individual political ownership.
Owino’s Nairobi pitch is already taking shape around bread-and-butter issues. He has promised to tackle garbage collection and drainage, expand school feeding and improve public healthcare if elected governor. He has also accused the current county administration of failing to adequately prepare for heavy rains.
Sakaja therefore sits directly in Owino’s political line of fire.
Yet Owino is careful not to burn the wider bridge. He says his Nairobi campaign will help strengthen Linda Mwananchi while also pursuing his own gubernatorial ambition and perhaps the office on the hill thereafter.
And that may be the real Babu Owino puzzle: can the man campaigning for Sifuna’s national dream successfully sell Nairobians his own?
For now, he appears determined to run both campaigns with one eye on State House politics and the other firmly fixed on City Hall.
