Gachagua Withdraws DCP’s Malava parliamentary by-election Candidate in Favour of DAP-K’s Seth Panyako

The former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua led Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) has withdrawn from the forthcoming Malava parliamentary by-election set for November 27 in favour of the Democratic Action Party of Kenya (DAP-K) candidate. The decision was announced after the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) chairman who is the former Defence Cabinet Secretary (CS) Eugene Wamala led DAP-K’s candidate Seth Panyako and DCP’s Edgar Busiega held a meeting at DCP deputy party leader Cleophas Malala’s residence. After the consultative meeting, Malala emerged and said that the decision for DCP to pull out of the Malava race was reached after a scientific survey revealed that Panyako was the stronger candidate. “Busiega has his support, yes, but he knew if we both get to the ballot, we’ll lose. We have agreed with party leader Rigathi Gachagua that Busiega’s name will be the first on the nomination for the party in 2027," Malala said. Busiega said that he was supporting Panyako unconditionally. He said that Malava is bigger than an individual, and it's impossible for all of them to be the MP of the constituency at the same time. “I have dealt with Panyako for years as his attorney and want to say I have left my people in safe hands. We’re looking at this thing from the perspective of Luhya unity,” he said. Panyako said the journey to unite Luhyas has begun with the Malava race, claiming that some opponents have been buying people in Malava, but their push will not succeed now that they have a united front. “I left UDA and declined the ODM ticket because I wanted to reclaim the dignity of the community,” Panyakoo said.