Lands PS Korir discreetly takes charge of UDA operations in Nairobi city
The move seen to technically keep Sakaja outside President Ruto's 2026 re-election campaign bid
By Adieri Mulaa
In an emerging new political strategy shift by the President William Ruto’s led UDA party ahead of the 2027 general election, Lands Principal Secretary Nixon Korir has discreetly taken charge of President Ruto’s campaign operations and coordination in Nairobi City County, The Informer Weekly can authoritatively reveal.
In a well schemed political plot, sources intimated to that Korir plans to meet all former Nairobi City County Assembly MCAs and former councillors in the defunct City Council of Nairobi.
This comes evens as a team of several other sitting Nairobi MCAs, all ODM members have reportedly been tasked by a Harambee House honcho to undertake ground political mobilisation in favour of the government.
The meeting is intended to lay ground work for strategic grassroots mobilisation, and marshal support for president Ruto among the county leaders backing his second term bid, impeccable sources said.
PS Korir kicked of his new political responsibility in earnest a week ago, when the former Lang’ata Member of Parliament (MP) coordinated National Youth Service (NYS) trucks in clean up services at the expansive Muthurwa Market in the capital’s central business district, where tonnes of garbage were carted away.
The gesture by the national government extending it’s hand to help county government reflects clear inability by City Hall to collect garbage from the market.
Muthurwa Market is situated in the CBD which is the heart of the capital city. The market which sells food stuffs among other goods and services is a big revenue stream but the governor is unable to provide cleansing services.
Impeccable sources indicated that former Starehe MP Charles Njagua Kanyi a.k.a Jaguar, who is making a political come back, and Nairobi Central Ward MCA Mwaniki Kwenya organised the clean up exercise through the National Government, without involving the county government which has reportedly neglected its role.
Ironically, the clean up operation involving tippers from the National Youth Service would ordinarily have been backed up by Nairobi County government garbage trucks. It smacks of a fluid political relationship between President Ruto and Nairobi governor Johnson Sakaja.
Late last year, President Ruto publicly reprimanded Nairobi county leadership saying that Nairobi “cannot continue to be a city in the filth,” lamenting the uncollected garbage, poor sanitation, and general poor state of the capital city.
“Nairobi cannot continue to be a city in the filth. We have started cleaning the Nairobi River and now we are in the final stages of signing an agreement with the private sector on how we are going to clean this city,” President Ruto said while during the Africa Inland Church Ziwani 70th Anniversary in Nairobi in October 2025.
The county government trucks were nowhere on cite during the clean-up exercise that was done for three nights on Friday, January 9, 2026, Saturday and Monday.
Preceding the event, a poster of Nairobi Central Ward MCA, Mwaniki Kwenya calling on residents to participate in the clean up event appeared on social media platforms, without disclosing details.
Politically, the responsibility that has been bestowed upon PS Korir to coordinate clean up services in the CBD could imply that Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja has effectively been ‘locked’ out of President Ruto’s re-election activities in Nairobi City.
Sources told The Informer Weekly that when Sakaja learned about the clean up exercise, he dispatched the county garbage trucks to team up with the fleet from the National Youth Service but they were rejected by traders and sent away in haste.
The irate traders at Wakulima Market, who for a long time have endured toxic stench emissions from uncollected garbage mounds pelted the county trucks with stones sending them back to City Hall.
This comes hot on the heels of speedy internal preparations by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party and President Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, to formalise a coalition ahead of 2027 General Election.
On Wednesday, January 14, 2026 President Ruto presided over the UDA National Executive Committee meeting at State House, Nairobi, to review the party’s progress and outcome of the recent grassroots elections.
This happened a few days after ODM Central Management Committee resolved during a meeting in Vipingo, Kilifi county chaired by the party leader, Dr Oburu Oginga, to engage in pre-election coalition negotiations with UDA.
”We are establishing mechanisms for structured engagement with the ODM party, to deepen political cooperation, build consensus on shared priorities, and provide a clear framework for dialogue, coordination, and partnership”, said the President in a statement on Wednesday.
Ruto noted that the objective is to strengthen the on-going political partnership, support stable governance, and lay the foundation for a formal coalition arrangement ahead of the 2027 General Election.
At the Nairobi City County Assembly several MCAs have developed a frosty relationship with governor Sakaja. The county legislators claim the governor has written their ‘political obituaries’ by failing to implement Ward Development Projects they initiated.
According to reports from the Assembly, a proposal was floated for the House Speaker Ken Ng’ondi to deputise PS Korir in marshalling and coordination of President Ruto’s re-election activities in Nairobi City.
However, the proposal was shelved after the city MCAs reportedly rejected Ng’ondi’s name for reasons that were not disclosed.
Initially, Ng’ondi was reportedly angling to deputise Sakaja in the governor’s bid for a second term but that idea now appears to have been overtaken by events, after ODM party leader Raila Odinga passed on.
