Mike Sonko has urged Kalonzo Musyoka to accept a deputy president position under President William Ruto if the opposition withholds its presidential ticket from him, a suggestion that sits against Kalonzo’s own stated position less than two weeks after the Wiper leader ruled out any alliance with Kenya Kwanza.
Speaking in an interview on Thursday, November 12, 2026, the former Nairobi governor argued that Kalonzo has earned first refusal on the opposition’s 2027 ticket, citing three previous occasions on which the Wiper leader set aside his own presidential ambitions to back Raila Odinga.
Sonko’s fallback proposal is that if that ticket does not come, Kalonzo should cross over to Ruto’s camp and serve as his deputy. He described the coming general election as Kalonzo’s final realistic opportunity to occupy the presidency. No public response by Kalonzo to that suggestion has been reported.
The advice sits uneasily beside Kalonzo’s recent public statements. On Sunday, November 1, he dismissed calls for him to work with the Kenya Kwanza administration, calling it a government of predators. He said any such arrangement would contradict the political position he has taken, and instead called for a straight 2027 presidential contest against Ruto.
Sonko’s intervention came a day after another senior figure pushed the opposition in a different direction.
