A behind-the-scenes political meeting held on Sunday has set the stage for a possible major realignment in Nairobi politics, with Lang’ata MP Felix Odiwour, popularly known as Jalang’o, now positioning himself for a run at the Nairobi Senate seat.
The meeting, convened by Lands Principal Secretary Nixon Korir, brought together Jalang’o and South C MCA Ibrahim Abbas Khalif, who has previously been viewed as a potential challenger for the Lang’ata parliamentary seat. Korir, a former Lang’ata MP himself, is said to have stepped in amid concerns that parallel ambitions by leaders aligned to President William Ruto could fracture support within the Broad-Based Government’s Nairobi base.
Sources indicate that, with President Ruto’s backing, Korir encouraged the two politicians to agree on a strategy that would avoid internal competition and preserve unity among Ruto’s supporters in the capital. Under the proposed arrangement, Abbas would back Jalang’o’s senatorial bid, while the MP would, in turn, support Abbas’s plan to succeed him in Lang’ata.
The political shift became public on Tuesday morning when Jalang’o spoke on Radio 47’s breakfast show, where he openly declared his intention to vie for the Nairobi Senate seat, currently held by ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna.
During the interview, Jalang’o maintained that the decision was entirely his own and not the result of pressure or direction from external actors, including the President. He said his choice was informed by years of engagement with Nairobi residents and a personal assessment of the city’s political landscape.
Switching between English and Kiswahili, the first-term MP expressed confidence in his political reach across the capital, arguing that his interactions with residents had convinced him he could represent Nairobi at different levels of leadership.
Meanwhile, Abbas has also been signalling his readiness for higher office. In December, the MCA sponsored a high-profile football tournament in Lang’ata that ended with finals at Ulinzi Stadium. The competition attracted attention after the top teams walked away with major prizes, including a minibus, a van and a Probox, a move widely interpreted as a show of political muscle ahead of a parliamentary bid.
If the emerging plan holds, Nairobi could be headed for a tightly choreographed political transition, with key players reshuffling their ambitions in a bid to strengthen their positions ahead of the next general election.
