ADVERT 
ADVERTForget ethnic arithmetic: the Alego Usonga MP offers Ruto a rare combination of Siaya roots, ODM credibility, parliamentary muscle and a post-Raila political bridge
As the broad-based government enters the increasingly consequential politics of 2027, the question of who will stand beside President William Ruto on the presidential ticket is likely to become one of the most fiercely negotiated issues in Kenya’s political establishment.
Names such as Hassan Joho and Wycliffe Oparanya have featured prominently in political speculation. Both are experienced politicians with substantial regional networks and established relationships with the Orange Democratic Movement.
But there is another name that deserves far more serious consideration than it has so far received:
Samuel Onunga Atandi.
ADVERTThe case for Atandi is not simply that he is Luo. It is not merely that he comes from ODM. And it is certainly not about reducing the 2027 election to another round of ethnic arithmetic.
It is about political architecture.
Atandi potentially gives Ruto something considerably more valuable than a regional voting bloc: a bridge between the old opposition establishment and the political generation that must now emerge after Raila Odinga.
That makes the Alego Usonga MP an intriguing potential running mate.
A son of Siaya — and therefore a son of Raila’s political homeland
There is symbolism in politics, and then there is symbolism that can alter political narratives.
Siaya is inseparable from the history of the Odinga political family. It is the home of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and the political heartland from which Raila Odinga built one of Kenya’s most formidable political movements.
Atandi is a son of that soil.
He represents Alego Usonga and has been an ODM MP since 2017. Parliament’s official records also show a professional background spanning Standard Chartered Bank, Bank of Africa, NIC Bank and National Bank of Kenya before his return to elective politics.
That matters.
Ruto choosing Atandi would therefore carry a message much larger than the appointment of another Luo politician.
It would say that the political homeland historically associated with the Odingas can produce a new generation of national leaders capable of working beyond the political antagonisms of the past.
Atandi would not be Raila’s replacement.
Nor should he attempt to become one.
His political value lies precisely in being something different.
The man who crossed the political bridge
For years, Ruto and the political establishment around Raila represented opposing sides of Kenya’s political divide.
That divide has now been dramatically altered.
Atandi is one of the ODM politicians who have openly embraced the broad-based government and Ruto’s 2027 re-election project. In May 2026, he said Nyanza fully supported Ruto and the broad-based arrangement and urged ODM leaders opposed to the party’s current direction to return to the fold.
He had already taken a similar position in 2025, arguing that ODM was not prepared to mount a presidential campaign without Raila and saying the party should rally behind Ruto.
This is politically significant.
Atandi does not need to be introduced to Nyanza.
He does not need to explain the region’s historical grievances to the President.
He grew up politically inside the very movement that spent years opposing Ruto.
He knows why Nyanza distrusted Ruto — and he now knows why he believes that relationship should change.
That gives him a political currency that cannot easily be manufactured in a boardroom in Nairobi.
Post-Raila Nyanza needs a new political language
The old political equation has effectively disappeared.
It was once possible to describe Kenyan politics through a simple formula:
Ruto + Raila.
Raila is gone.
The question confronting both ODM and Ruto is therefore much bigger than who gets what position in government.
It is:
Who builds the political relationship between Ruto and Nyanza after Raila?
Atandi could be part of the answer.
He is an elected politician from Siaya, not a political appointee parachuted into the region.
He emerged from ODM’s political ecosystem and has subsequently become one of the most visible advocates of the Ruto-ODM working arrangement.
That makes him a potentially useful post-Raila bridge.
And bridges are most valuable when they connect places that previously appeared impossible to connect.
Atandi has parliamentary muscle — not merely campaign rhetoric
There is another dimension to the Atandi argument that should not be overlooked.
He is not simply a constituency politician.
He is currently chairperson of the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee, placing him at the centre of one of Parliament’s most consequential functions: deciding how public resources are appropriated.
In May 2026, the committee engaged the National Treasury over the 2026/27 fiscal framework, which projected total expenditure of KSh4.785 trillion and a fiscal deficit of KSh1.111 trillion.
The final Appropriations Act authorised KSh4.82 trillion in government expenditure for 2026/27, and Parliament records identify Atandi as the legislation’s sponsor.
This is not trivial parliamentary bookkeeping.
The national budget determines what government can actually do.
It affects roads, counties, agriculture, health, education, security, youth programmes, infrastructure and social protection.
A politician who understands that machinery can be enormously valuable to a president.
He has demonstrated an ability to negotiate inside Parliament
Perhaps more important than the size of the budget is the political process behind it.
On June 4, 2026, the National Assembly concluded consideration of the 2026/27 Budget Estimates through the Committee of Supply without amendments. Atandi subsequently moved the House to approve the committee’s report.
That episode says something about his political style.
Atandi does not necessarily have to dominate every political conversation.
He can work through institutions.
He can negotiate.
He can marshal parliamentary numbers.
He can move complicated financial legislation through the House.
For a presidency facing intense pressure over taxation, debt, expenditure and economic management, institutional competence is not a small asset.
He understands the economy
Atandi’s professional history is another part of the equation.
Before entering elective politics, he worked in banking, including senior positions at National Bank of Kenya, NIC Bank, Bank of Africa and Standard Chartered.
That background does not automatically make someone an economic genius.
But it gives Atandi an unusual combination of experience: private-sector financial exposure followed by years inside Parliament and, now, responsibility for the national appropriation process.
For a Ruto administration whose political survival in 2027 will depend heavily on whether ordinary Kenyans believe the economy is moving in the right direction, that profile could become politically useful.
And then there is the youth question
Kenya’s political landscape changed dramatically after the Gen-Z protests of 2024.
The message from younger Kenyans was not simply that they wanted younger politicians.
It was that they wanted a different relationship with power.
They wanted accountability, competence, transparency and leaders who could communicate without treating young citizens as passive spectators.
The subsequent rise of figures such as Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has demonstrated the electoral potency of articulate, combative and highly visible political voices.
Ruto does not necessarily need another political firebrand.
He needs a politician capable of speaking to a younger Kenya without being trapped in the politics of perpetual confrontation.
Atandi potentially occupies that middle ground.
His proposition can be framed around a simple transition:
from protest to governance.
The message would not be, “I agree with everything government does.”
It would be:
“I understand why young Kenyans demanded change. Now let us use institutions to deliver it.”
That is a potentially powerful political proposition.
Alego Usonga gives him a real electoral base
Atandi’s value is not purely symbolic.
He is an elected politician with a substantial constituency.
The 2022 election results show that he won Alego Usonga on the ODM ticket with a commanding margin. Available election data puts his vote total at about 69,000.
More importantly, he achieved that victory in a county where Ruto’s presidential campaign faced overwhelming opposition in 2022.
That tells Ruto something important:
Atandi knows how to operate politically in territory that has historically been hostile to the President.
Whether he could translate that into a national running-mate vote is another question — and no serious analyst should pretend that one politician can deliver an entire region.
But he has something that cannot be bought through campaign spending:
local political authenticity.
Why Atandi may be more interesting than the obvious choices
Joho brings the Coast.
Oparanya brings experience and a formidable Western Kenya political network.
Those are substantial assets.
But the running-mate question should not be reduced to:
“Who brings Ruto the biggest ethnic bloc?”
The better question is:
“Who helps Ruto construct the political coalition Kenya will need after 2027?”
On that question, Atandi becomes considerably more interesting.
He potentially brings:
Siaya.
Nyanza.
ODM.
Post-Raila credibility.
Parliamentary experience.
Financial-sector experience.
Government exposure.
A substantial constituency base.
A younger political profile.
And, crucially, a personal political journey from ODM opposition to cooperation with Ruto.
That is a different proposition from simply adding another experienced politician to the ticket.
But Atandi has weaknesses — and Ruto would have to confront them
A credible case for Atandi must also acknowledge the obvious limitations.
He does not command Nyanza.
No individual politician does.
ODM remains a contested political ecosystem, and Atandi’s support for Ruto has itself placed him on one side of the party’s internal debate. His public positions have already attracted political criticism, including over his assessment of ODM’s readiness for 2027.
And while his parliamentary position gives him significant institutional experience, being a successful committee chair is not the same thing as proving oneself capable of serving as Deputy President.
The Deputy Presidency requires national mobilisation, executive coordination, political diplomacy and the ability to manage enormous expectations.
Atandi would therefore need to demonstrate that he is more than a capable budget politician.
He would need to prove that he can become a national political figure.
That is the test.
The succession question
There is, however, an even bigger reason Ruto should look beyond the immediate arithmetic of 2027.
A running mate is not only about winning an election.
It is also about answering a much more consequential question:
What happens after Ruto?
Kenya’s politics has repeatedly suffered from coalitions built around personalities without credible succession arrangements.
An Atandi ticket would send a potentially powerful generational message.
A President from the Rift Valley.
A Deputy President from Siaya.
An ODM politician working with a former political adversary.
A son of Raila’s political homeland occupying the second-highest office in the Republic.
A new generation emerging from the shadow of Kenya’s great political giants.
That is a story.
And politics, ultimately, is about stories as much as numbers.
The real question for Naivasha
As UDA and ODM navigate the future of their broad-based arrangement, the running-mate question should not be approached merely as a bargaining exercise over ethnic mathematics.
The real question should be:
Who can help build the next political coalition of Kenya?
If that is the test, Samuel Atandi deserves to be on the table.
Not because he is Luo.
Not because he is from ODM.
Not because he comes from Siaya.
But because his political trajectory offers something increasingly rare in Kenya:
a politician who can potentially speak to two political worlds.
The old opposition world.
And the emerging post-Raila political order.
He understands the language of ODM, but has embraced Ruto’s political project.
He comes from Siaya, but has national parliamentary responsibilities.
He has banking experience, but understands grassroots electoral politics.
He has institutional experience, but belongs to a generation that can still engage younger voters.
That combination is unusual.
Ruto–Atandi: the unconventional ticket
No running mate can deliver an entire ethnic community.
No politician can guarantee an election victory.
And no amount of political engineering can substitute for a government’s actual performance.
But a running mate can change the mathematics, narrative and psychological architecture of an election.
Samuel Atandi potentially does all three.
He offers Ruto a credible connection to Siaya and Nyanza, a bridge into ODM’s political tradition, parliamentary and budgetary experience, financial-sector exposure, and a post-Raila political narrative.
Most importantly, he offers something political deals cannot easily manufacture:
authenticity.
Atandi is not a Luo politician recruited from nowhere to tick a regional box.
He is a Siaya politician who emerged from the ODM tradition, built his own electoral base and has subsequently chosen to work with William Ruto and defend the broad-based government.
That does not make him inevitable.
It does, however, make him difficult to ignore.
And if Naivasha is truly about designing a political coalition capable of carrying Kenya into the next era, then Samuel Onunga Atandi should not be sitting outside the room waiting to be invited.
He should be at the table.
Because the most consequential question of 2027 may not be who can inherit Raila’s votes.
It may be who can help Kenya finally move beyond Raila’s political era.
Ruto–Atandi 2027 would be more than a presidential ticket.
It would be a political statement:
that the old fault lines can be crossed, that the post-Raila generation is ready to emerge, and that Kenya’s next political coalition does not necessarily have to be built around yesterday’s enemies and yesterday’s arithmetic.
