The Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) has directed the Registrar of Political Parties (RPP) to reserve the name Linda Mwananchi Movement (LMM) within seven days, overturning the Registrar’s earlier decision to reject the application.
In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, the Tribunal declared that the Registrar’s August 7 decision declining to reserve the proposed party name had no legal justification and set it aside.
The case was filed by Caroli Omondi, Pauline Njoroge and Faith Odhiambo, who challenged the refusal to reserve the name and its abbreviation.
The dispute had emerged amid a wider contest over the use of the “Linda” political identity ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The Tribunal found that the reservation of the name LINDA had been subject to a statutory 90-day period and that no formal application for provisional registration had been filed within that period.
It therefore held that the reservation had lapsed by operation of the law, meaning LINDA no longer had priority or an enforceable interest in the name that could prevent another applicant from seeking reservation.
The Tribunal also noted that the Registrar’s records did not contain the required formal application for provisional registration.
The Tribunal further ruled that the Liberty National Democratic Alliance (LINDA), which participated in the case as an interested party, had not completed its registration process and was neither provisionally nor fully registered.
It consequently struck out all pleadings filed by LINDA, holding that an entity acquires corporate capacity to sue, be sued and undertake legal acts in its own name only upon full registration.
The ruling clears the way for the Linda Mwananchi Movement to secure reservation of its proposed name, although the decision does not by itself amount to full registration as a political party. The reservation is a step in the statutory registration process.
The dispute has attracted significant political attention as the movement associated with Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna seeks to establish its political identity ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The Tribunal declined to grant the applicants all the other prayers they had sought and ordered the parties to bear their own costs.
