Revealed: Linda Mwananchi Movement not yet registered
Politics
By
Edwin Nyarangi
| Nov 13, 2026
The Registrar of Political Parties John Cox Lorionokou has told the Senate that the Linda Mwananchi Movement is not yet a political party since it has not exhausted all the procedures.
This comes up as the Linda Mwananchi Movement led by Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna will be holding a National Delegates Conference (NDC) this Friday in Nairobi to fulfil the legal requirements of the party’s establishment.
According to a statement issued by the movement secretariat attendance to the NDC is restricted to designated delegates drawn from The Equitable Party(TEP) who were registered by the date the NDC notice was published with each county allocated specific number of delegates.
“We ask for your understanding and cooperation as we undertake this important process to approve the party’s name change and ratify other decisions necessary to formalize out transition to Linda Mwananchi Movement,” read a statement from Linda Mwananchi Secretariat.
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Lorionokou had appeared before the Senate National Cohesion, Equal Opportunity and Regional Integration Committee Chaired by Marsabit Senator Mohammed Chute to deliberate on efforts to ensure that the August 2027 General Election is held in a peaceful and inclusive manner.
The Registrar of Political Parties told Senators that the registration process is very elaborate and has three stages with the first stage being reservation, which means the reservation of a name, party symbol and party colour.
He said that the second stage is the provisional registration with a party reserving the name for 90 days and then the full registration, which is normally done after 270 days and that his office as the record of all the registered political parties and their officials.
“In the case of Linda Mwananchi Movement this is a matter in court, which I should not be making comments about, but just for clarity, they had reserved the name but I declined because there was already another party using the initials Linda,” said Lorionokou.
The Registrar of Political Parties said that according to his interpretation of the Act it means that there will still be a conflict of use of name stating that was the reason as to why he declined to give the name to Linda Mwananchi Movement.
Lorinonokou said that of course, being a law-abiding institution, the Political Parties Tribunal ruled that he gives that name for reservation by Linda Mwananchi Movement, which he did and that they have a reservation period of 90 days.
He said that public participation has to be done so that people know that a political party intends to change its name because a party is an institution so when any changes are done, the members have to be alerted that this about to happen and their input included.
“Rebranding is not restricted to any timelines, because rebranding of a party is a preserve of that political party which can be rebranded any time, so any party can change their name, they can change their logo, they can change their symbol or they can change their colors, if they so wish,” said Lorionokou.
He said that there have been a few parties that have changed their outlook by rebranding in adherence to the timelines in regards to the coming general election with every political party participating in this election having already made submissions of what is required.
Lorionokou said that if a rebranding of a party happens now then it becomes an interpretation of the Electoral Commission on whether the rebranded version will be taken as new or it will be in the context of the party that submitted either the signatories or the nomination rules.
“As far as the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties is concerned rebranding of every party can be done at any time, I have no restrictions on when a party can rebrand or not rebrand, but there are procedures to be followed,” said Lorionokou.