By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 13 August 2026 - President William Ruto’s search for a second-term foothold in Nyanza is moving from the podium to the homestead.
The political geography is changing.
When Cabinet Secretary for MSMEs and Cooperatives Development Wycliffe Oparanya visited Kisumu Senator Prof Tom Ojienda at his Kisumu home, the two joined forces to drum up support for Ruto’s 2027 re-election bid.
They were joined by AFA Director Samuel Ongou adding another layer to an increasingly coordinated campaign for the President in a region historically hostile to him.
The message was blunt: Nyanza should give Ruto another chance.
" We are hunting votes for the president," said Oparanya.
Ojienda echoed the same as Ongou. They are woing Nyanza youth and women to re-elect President William Ruto in 2027 General Elections.
And they are not alone.
A growing band of leaders from the region, led by Interior Principal Secretary Dr Raymond Omollo, are taking the pro-Ruto argument into villages, funerals, churches, community meetings and grassroots gatherings.
This is no longer simply a campaign being conducted by national officials in Nyanza.
It is increasingly acquiring a local face.
Omollo has argued that Ruto has demonstrated a deliberate commitment to Nyanza through development projects.
He has put the value of projects across Siaya, Kisumu, Homa Bay and Migori at more than KSh 220 billion.
" We are humbly asking the people of Nyanza and Kenyans to back President William Ruto to continue to deliver deligent services to them. There are a lot more good projects to be done," he disclosed.
That is the central plank of the Ruto campaign in Nyanza, consistent and focused to greater good with humility and servant leadership.
Development first. Politics second.
The President's allies are betting that roads, water projects, schools, health facilities, electricity, affordable housing and other state investments can gradually rewrite the political memory of a region that overwhelmingly rejected Ruto in 2022.
Ojienda has been among the most outspoken voices making that calculation.
He has previously argued that Ruto's advantage lies in the emerging alliance between government and leaders from Nyanza and Western Kenya, insisting that rival opposition formations lack the numbers to defeat the President.
Now, standing alongside Oparanya, that argument has acquired an even sharper political edge.
If Nyanza leaders themselves are willing to campaign for Ruto, why should voters remain locked into yesterday's political loyalties?
That is the question the President's camp wants to put before voters.
Oparanya is particularly important.
The former Kakamega governor is not an outsider parachuted into the region. He is a veteran of the opposition movement and a senior figure within ODM who now serves in Ruto's Cabinet.
His presence alongside Ojienda sends a calculated message: the political wall separating Nyanza from the Kenya Kwanza administration is weakening.
For Ruto, that matters enormously.
The President does not necessarily need Nyanza to become uniformly pro-government.
He needs enough votes to make the region competitive.
A significant shift in Nyanza, combined with his existing support bases elsewhere, could fundamentally alter the arithmetic of 2027.
This explains the intensity of the grassroots campaign.
The Ruto camp appears to have learnt that endorsements by prominent leaders are not enough.
The argument must reach the voter in the village.
Omollo has repeatedly framed the President's record as evidence that Nyanza is no longer being politically punished because of its voting patterns. He has said development is being distributed without discrimination and that stalled projects have resumed.
That is potentially the most potent argument available to the President.
Vote for whoever you want, but judge the government by what it has delivered.
Ruto's allies want voters to separate development from political loyalty.
They are effectively telling Nyanza: the era when voting against the government meant waiting another five years for major projects is over.
The President's second advantage is incumbency.
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He controls the national executive.
His allies occupy strategic positions in government.
Oparanya sits in Cabinet. Omollo occupies a senior Interior docket. Other Nyanza politicians have moved closer to government.
That gives the Ruto campaign access to both political networks and the machinery required to demonstrate what it calls delivery.
The third advantage is fragmentation among his potential opponents.
Ojienda has already argued that opposition figures such as former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and DAP-K leader Eugene Wamalwa have yet to demonstrate a coalition capable of matching Ruto's numbers.
That may be an overly confident assessment.
But it reveals the strategic calculation.
Ruto's camp does not need every Nyanza voter.
It needs to prevent the opposition from achieving overwhelming margins.
The fourth advantage is the changing political generation.
Younger voters are increasingly less attached to the old opposition-versus-government binary.
Jobs, business opportunities, infrastructure, education, health and the cost of living can matter more than yesterday's political loyalties.
That is precisely the constituency Ruto's campaign wants to capture.
But there is a formidable obstacle.
Nyanza's political memory is long.
Raila Odinga's influence, the history of ODM and the region's traditional political alignment cannot simply be erased by a few development projects or high-profile visits.
The President's opponents will ask a simple question:
Are the projects enough to transform political allegiance?
That remains uncertain.
The Oparanya-Ojienda meeting therefore represents more than another political courtesy call.
It is part of a larger experiment.
Can Ruto convert government presence into votes?
Can local leaders convert their influence into grassroots support?
Can development overcome political history?
And can Nyanza's voters be persuaded that the most useful political relationship is no longer necessarily the one built around opposition?
For now, the Ruto camp is upbeat that the answer is yes.
Its message is becoming increasingly disciplined.
Ruto ticks because he is the incumbent, controls the national government, has delivered projects in Nyanza, has brought influential regional leaders into his administration and, most importantly, is offering voters a direct choice between political loyalty and tangible development.
The opposition still has the history.
Ruto has the machinery.
The real contest will be whether that machinery can penetrate the village — and turn political endorsements into votes.
In Nyanza, the 2027 presidential contest has begun to move quietly but decisively from the elite meeting room to the doorstep.
And that is where Ruto's biggest gamble begins.
Why Ruto’s Foot Soldiers Are Taking Campaigns to Nyanza Villages
Why Ruto’s Foot Soldiers Are Taking Campaigns to Nyanza Villages