By Kepher Otieno - Senior journalist based in Kenya and a regular advocate for democracy and good governance.
"A party becomes people-centred when citizens participate in choosing its leaders, shaping its policies and holding its officials accountable." - Kepher Otieno
Kenya is approaching the 2027 General Election with an increasingly familiar political spectacle.
Politicians are forming new parties, taking over old ones and searching for names that can turn electoral ambition into a national movement.
This time, one word appears to be particularly fashionable:- People.
Former ICT CS Eliud Owalo has built his political vehicle around the People’s Prosperity Party (PPP).
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro has moved into the People’s Party of Kenya (PPK).
Martha Karua leads the People’s Liberation Party (PLP).
There is also the People’s Empowerment Party, (PEP), while the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)has a longer history in Kenyan politics.
The People Centred Party (PCP), is another recent entrant into this expanding political vocabulary.
The question is not whether Kenyans should be allowed to form political parties. They should.
The deeper question is why almost every election cycle produces a fresh crop of political vehicles.
This is because many are apparently built around individual ambitions rather than durable ideologies aimed at building Kenya.
And why has the “People” become such an attractive political prefix?
The answer may lie in the power of political branding. Prosperity, liberation, empowerment and people-centred government are difficult ideas to oppose.
Who does not want prosperity? Who does not want liberation? Who would reject empowerment?
Who would argue against putting people at the centre of government? Interesting.
But political language can be easier than political delivery.
Owalo's People's Prosperity Party offers perhaps the clearest example. Other people are yet to unveil their ideologies for Kenyans to dissect.
PPP's own policy statement says Kenya's central problem is not a shortage of ideas but an economic architecture that remains extractive and unequal.
The party describes its mission as a “Third Liberation” centred on economic liberation, local capital, enterprise, labour and inclusive prosperity.
It wants economic growth to be felt at household level rather than concentrated among a narrow elite, according to Owalo.
That is a potentially serious economic proposition. But it immediately raises the difficult questions.
How will Kenya unlock domestic capital? How will small enterprises move from survival to production?
How will farmers, workers and entrepreneurs capture a larger share of value?
And how will the party finance its promises in a country already struggling with debt and taxation?
The prosperity argument therefore has to move beyond rhetoric. It needs a fiscal model.
Nyoro's People's Party of Kenya comes with a different political calculation.
His departure from UDA and entry into the opposition has turned the party into a vehicle for a much broader political realignment ahead of 2027.
But Nyoro has also begun putting policy flesh on the political proposition.
His programme includes free secondary education, restructuring the management of teachers, a new approach to university financing, changes to healthcare funding.
He also promises a jobs-focused industrial strategy.
Nyoro is pro lowering electricity costs, greater investment in power generation, industrial special economic zones and an export-oriented manufacturing model.
That is more than a campaign slogan. It is the beginning of an economic programme.
Yet it carries the same question facing every new party: where will the money come from?
Free education requires sustained financing. Universal healthcare requires predictable revenue.
Industrialisation requires cheaper energy and infrastructure. Jobs cannot simply be announced.
They have to be created by businesses, factories, farms, technology companies and public investment operating within a credible economic framework.
Karua's People's Liberation Party comes from another direction.
Its political language is built around integrity, accountability, the rule of law and people-centred governance.
The party lists economic transformation, job creation, agriculture, healthcare, education, security reform, social protection, digital innovation and gender equality among its policy priorities.
Karua's challenge is therefore not to convince Kenyans that governance matters.
It is to demonstrate how institutional reform can translate into better economic outcomes.
That is where Kenya's political-party problem becomes more complicated.
The country has never suffered from a shortage of parties. It has suffered from a shortage of parties that survive their founders.
A new political party can be necessary when existing institutions become captured or unresponsive.
But when new parties are created every election season mainly as vehicles for presidential or parliamentary ambitions, political competition can become a marketplace of personalities.
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The danger is that ideology becomes secondary to electoral arithmetic.
Party names change.
Coalitions change.
Alliances change.
Politicians cross the floor.
And the voter is repeatedly asked to believe that the new vehicle represents a new political beginning.The People's Democratic Party illustrates the longevity problem.
It has appeared at different points in Kenya's political history and was associated with former South Mugirango MP Omingo Magara.
It later became the vehicle through which Okoth Obado won the Migori governorship. Obado later abandoned it and reverted to the ODM party.
So as of now its political significance has not translated into the kind of permanent institutional presence associated with major parties in mature democracies.
That is the paradox of Kenyan democracy. There is extensive political choice, but relatively weak party institutionalisation. The question that lingers is - Can they defeat President William Ruto with their Peoples Parties? Maybe time will tell. But Ruto has vowed to beat them all.
Comparatively, China Republic presents a very different model.
China officially recognises eight political parties besides the Chinese Communist Party.
But those parties do not compete with the Communist Party for national power in the Kenyan sense.
They operate within a system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
They participate in policy consultation, administration and democratic supervision, but accept the Communist Party's leading role.
This is not a model Kenya should copy. China is not a competitive liberal multi-party democracy.
Its political system does not offer the same possibility of electoral alternation in national power.
The stability produced by its system comes with profound restrictions on political competition and dissent. But there is an institutional lesson worth examining.
China's political system is built around continuity.
Long-term development strategies are not routinely discarded because a new presidential election has produced a different governing coalition.
Its five-year plans and industrial strategies operate within a much longer political horizon.
Kenya's challenge is different. It must preserve competitive democracy while building parties capable of surviving political seasons.
The current “People” phenomenon therefore deserves more scrutiny than the names suggest.
Are these genuinely new ideological movements?
Or are they new electoral vehicles carrying old political ambitions?
Owalo appears to be betting on economic liberation and shared prosperity.
Nyoro is combining generational political change with a jobs, education, health and industrialisation agenda.
Karua is staking her party on governance, constitutionalism, accountability and social justice.
Those are legitimate and potentially powerful alternatives.
But the word “People” itself proves little.
A party becomes people-centred when citizens participate in choosing its leaders, shaping its policies and holding its officials accountable.
It becomes empowering when its economic policies actually transfer opportunity and productive capacity to ordinary citizens.
It becomes liberating when institutions become stronger than personalities.
That is the test awaiting Kenya's new political formations.
The country does not necessarily need fewer political parties. It needs stronger ones.
It needs parties that can lose elections without disappearing, win elections without becoming personal property and develop policies even when they are outside government.
The real political revolution would therefore not be the creation of another party.
It would be the creation of a party that survives the politician who founded it.
That is the gap between political branding and political institution-building.
And as Kenya moves towards 2027, voters should look beyond the attractive “People” label and ask the harder question: what exactly will this party do differently once it has the power it is asking the people to give it?
The answer will matter far more than the colour, symbol or name printed next to it on the ballot paper. Lets wait for the developments to unfold. Time will tell.
The writer is a senior journalist based in Kenya and a regular advocate for democracy and good governance. kepher43@gmail.com
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The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dawan Africa.
Opinion: Kenya’s Craze for 'People' Parties Represents Old Political Ambitions Wrapped in New Vehicles
A new political party can be necessary when existing institutions become captured or unresponsive.