Linda Mwananchi Movement leader Edwin Sifuna has pledged to cut Sh500 billion from the national budget within his first 100 days in office if elected president, and to use the savings to remove taxes on fuel and electricity and to scrap the housing levy.

The Nairobi Senator laid out the economic pitch on Friday during the opening of the movement's headquarters in Lavington, Nairobi, in what amounted to an early outline of the platform he hopes to take into the 2027 presidential race.

"Budgeted corruption"

Sifuna described a large share of current government spending as waste. "We want to cut Sh500 billion from the government budget because it is budgeted corruption. And once we finish that, we return that money to Kenyans," he said, according to Capital FM.

"We want to remove taxes on fuel, electricity and this thing called the housing levy," he added.

He did not say which budget lines would be cut or give a breakdown of how the Sh500 billion would be found, The Star noted.

The housing levy is deducted at 1.5 per cent of an employee's gross pay each month, with employers paying a matching amount.

State House spending in the spotlight

Sifuna singled out spending at State House, contrasting it with the demands of striking nurses. He told the crowd that nurses had stayed off duty for weeks over a demand of under Sh2 billion while about Sh12 billion was going to State House.

The approved 2026/27 estimates allocate State House Sh13.54 billion, made up of Sh12.52 billion in recurrent spending and Sh1.03 billion for development, according to The Star.

He also said a Linda Mwananchi government would make public the contracts for government projects and anchor its agenda on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Bayern-Ajax announcement criticised

The senator also took aim at President William Ruto's announcement from Moscow that German side Bayern Munich and Dutch club Ajax will play a friendly in Nairobi on January 5, 2027, to open the new Raila Odinga International Stadium.

Sifuna said he had hoped the President, who was attending the Russia-Africa forum, would instead announce progress on Kenyans said to have been lured into fighting for Russia in the Ukraine war.

"Some of us were hoping that he was going to announce that he had secured the release of the more than 1,000 Kenyans who were lured into the Russian armies to fight in the Ukraine war. But instead, he told us that two European teams are coming to Nairobi to play a football match," he said, as reported by Eastleigh Voice.

He promised that, as president, he would personally intervene for Kenyans in trouble abroad.

What next

The pledges are likely to feature prominently as the movement heads to its November 13 National Delegates Convention, where its leadership is due to be formalised. The government has not responded to his remarks on State House spending.

Photos: The Star (screengrab); Eastleigh Voice. Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.