DNK International By HENRY IMBACHILA,BUNGOMA
He quite so often refers to himself as some intelligent fly which would rather die in a pool of milk instead of in a pungent toilet.
His electorate simply call him Kufwela, a Bukusu euphemism for undying patience.
For times without number, the tolerant Governor of Bungoma reminds his electorate that though height is not one of his God-given gifts, he is the equivalent of a giraffe endowed with the wisdom to discern political developments from afar, long before they land.
Not many were surprised when President William Ruto appointed Ken Makelo Lusaka to spearhead the Head of State’s campaigns in his 2027 re-election bid.
The son of two teachers and an Anglican Canon mother, Lusaka is serving his second and last term as Governor of County No. 39.
A very sociable and easy-going character, the 63-year old former provincial administrator has been thrust at the centre of national politics as one of the political figures to strategise for the re-election of President William Ruto in next year’s General-Election.
A Herculean task indeed. In January this year, the President tasked him with the intricate responsibility to spearhead the former Eldoret North MP’s Western Kenya re-election campaigns for next year’s election.
Lusaka is no stranger to such a challenge. He has on two occasions previously exercised a similar mandate.
Not afraid to confront contests, the Bungoma Governor has demonstrated his willingness to confront tests whenever they are presented to him. He relishes them.
For him, it might have been a familiar teaser when Ruto picked him to co-ordinate the 2027 Kenya Kwanza Alliance election campaigns. .
Lusaka is serving his second and last term Governor. He is the immediate former Speaker of the Senate. He is a decorated old hand in public service.
He was identified both in 2017 and 2022, to lead presidential campaigns in the counties within the former Western Province (Kakamega, Vihiga and Busia) counties, plus Trans-Nzoia in the former Rift Valley Province.
Lusaka is now 63 years old. He has had a steeling public service career.
He first won the governorship of Bungoma on the ticket of New Ford Kenya party (now defunct) in 2013, with outfit supporting the presidential candidature of current Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
In 2017, his party was one of the 14 that folded to form Jubilee Party to support then President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election.
Uhuru won his second term but Lusaka lost his.
In 2022, Lusaka moved to Ford Kenya party led by current Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangua, together with the now wound up Amani National Congress (ANC) led by Mudavadi, teamed up with Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to cobble the Kenya Kwanza Alliance that eventually win the election..
He was first posted as a District Officer (DO) direct from university where he had read History, Government and Political Science and rose through the ranks to become a District Commissioner in which position he served in five districts and later promoted as the first Secretary for Provincial Administration in the Office of the President before being elevated to the post of Permanent Secretary for Livestock Development.
Still with 15 years to go before his retirement, Lusaka, who holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from the Netherlands quit the Civil Service at the age of 45 years to run for and was elected as the first Governor of Bungoma in 2013.
He was voted out five years later and replaced by hitherto unknown Wycliffe Wangamati.
He was to serve as Speaker of the Senate for the next half a decade and went back to the gubernatorial saddle in 2022 to dethrone Wangamati.
He is married to Dr. Margaret Nafula Makelo, the Secretary for Agriculture in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development who obtained her PhD in plant-breeding from Kwazulu Natal University, of South Africa in 2012.
He is the first born in a family of eight, with only five still surviving.
The Governor was born to Mzee Nelson Lusaka, a retied educationist and Mama Rodah Namaemba Lusaka, a retired primary school headmistress and later a lay canon in the Anglican Church.
The year 2024 was a devastating one to the Governor as he lost both his mother and younger brother Noah Sikhila Lusaka.
He has three children: Duncan Aura Makelo, Winnie Makelo and Sophie Nasilali Makelo.
Lusaka attended Kamukuywa Primary School, Kibabii Boys’ High School, Friends Kamusinga and Chesamisi High School (for one year).
Lusaka is serving his second and last term as Governor.
The assignment given to him by the Head of State will certainly define his next destination depending on the outcome of the presidential election next year.
In that portfolio, he is deputised Lugari MP Ayub Savula. Other members of the team are Vihiga County Woman Representative Dr Beatrice Adagala and Teso South MP Mary Emase.
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🗓️ [DNK-International@March11,2026]
