The populous Luhyia has suffered the jinx of disunity for decades.
Kakamega-Bungoma rivalry has been blamed for a divided Mulembe house. From 2002 , the late veep Kijana Wamalwa changed that narrative by uniting the Luhyia community under Ford-K.
That year the community voted overwhelmingly for retired president Kibaki. During the subsequent elections,the tribe repeated bloc voting by supporting Odinga on ODM ticket.
A similar voting pattern was witnessed in 2013 when Odinga again got the lion's share with Mudavadi running away with a sizeable chunk.
With Mudavadi and Wetangula in the same camp,the chances of bloc vote from Mulembe community are very high. History has shown that leading lights from the Luhyia tribe hardly pull together.The duo have overcome that jinx by joining one team under the banner of NASA.
This is quite historic in every sense. COTU Secretary General takes most of the credit for challenging the duo to unite. What remains to be seen is the voter turnout in the vast Luhyialand.
It is not surprising that Jubilee has sustained its campaigns in the land.President Uhuru and his Deputy have several trips in the region explaining their development programmes to the residents. If the charm offensive will yield any significance will be known at the ballot box.
However, by all indications , NASA enjoys an upper hand in the area.