ODM Party Leader Oburu Oginga spent his entire 5th day of January fire fighting.
Oginga, now struggling to fill Raila Odinga’s giant shoes met party strategists at a City members club late into the night.
This follows an imminent fallout whose trigger factor is linked to two term politics.
Oburu, who says he will contest the Presidency in 2027 is under siege from Babu Owino and Senator Edwin Sifuna..the two firebrants leading the opposition within ODM.
Sifuna and National Assembly Minority leader Junet Mohamed further threaten to tear the party apart since infighting erupted after the burial of its founder and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Despite a group of Members of Parliament from Nyanza region on Monday January 5, 2025, calling on party’s leader Oburu Odinga to put order in the party, the public exchanges appeared far from over after lawyers recruited to guard Raila Odinga’s votes in 2022 blamed Junet Mohamed for the agents’ fiasco. And Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition’s Chief Agent Saitabato Ole Kanchory Kanchory said Junet lacks the moral authority to talk about how Raila lost the 2022 election claiming on Sunday that the Suna East lawmaker single-handedly cost Azimio the presidency, and that even Raila died knowing that.
“I repeat, Junet Mohamed cannot talk of 2022. Let him talk about anything else but not 2022. Raila Odinga himself knew that Junet Mohamed almost singlehandedly cost him the 2022 election, and he told me as much. The only reason Raila retained and even promoted Junet was because he was planning to sell out (bitter truth) and needed a broker, and Junet happens to be the best broker money can buy – pun intended,” Kanchory said.
But the ODM MPs led by Rarieda Lawmaker Otiende Amolo said that internal divisions have started snowballing after the demise of party leader and founder Raila Odinga and will severely cripple the faction’s unity ahead of the 2027 General Election warning the verbal war between Junet and Sifuna over the handling of campaign funds during Odinga’s failed 2022 presidential bid threatens the party’s junity.
“Given the positions of trust bestowed on them, we urge the party officials like Secretary General Senator Edwin Sifuna and National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohamed, to desist from public verbal slurs and return to the table for internal discussions,” MP Omollo said.
The Rarieda MP also revisited the attack against Embakasi East MP Babu Owino by Kileleshwa MCA Robert Alai, who allegedly threatened to shoot him. Owino claimed that Alai accused him of orchestrating social media attacks against his wife.
The party therefore called on Oburu to convene party organs and help resolve the ongoing conflicts to restore the seemingly eroding public trust within the party.
“The current intolerance does not augur well for a revolutionary movement that Rt Hon Raila Odinga founded on the ideals of democracy, free speech and justice,” he said.
He further noted that the rifts are costing the party’s dominance in some regions as other political parties are occupying positions previously held by ODM members.
Other MPs who signed the agreement include Millie Odhiambo (Suba North), Tom Odege (Nyatike), Catherine Muma, John Ariko (Turkana South), Martin Owino (Ndhiwa), Aduma Owuor (Nyaka) and Catherine Muma (nominated).
The MPs raised fears that their party was losing popularity and that the squabbles were further aggravating the situation.
The spat witnessed within the party has laid bare the extent of ODM’s internal disarray in the post-Raila era.
Once held together by the towering authority of its founder, the party is now grappling with leadership struggles, unresolved grievances from the 2022 election, and competing power centres that are increasingly comfortable fighting in the open.
But the MP’s failure to respond to statement by Raila Oding’as Chief Agent in the 2022 General Saitabato Ole Kanchory Kanchory who criticised Junet Mohamed for his role in Raila Odinga’s 2022 election loss, leaves a lot to be desired.
in a series of tweets on Sunday, January 4, Kanchory comntinued”It is you, Junet, who kept Raila away from the command centre for reasons which were then best known to you and which are now obvious to all. It is ridiculous to suggest that Raila had restricted access to the command centre. Yes he rarely came but not because he couldn’t. When I insisted that Baba must join us and get a hands-on feeling of what was happening, you Junet told me that Baba was too busy and could not be involved or bothered by ‘such small matters as the issue of agents,” he claimed.
Kanchory alleged that Junet blocked him and the ODM Executive Director, Oduor Ong’gwen, from setting up a backup agent management system and tallying centre.
“When as ODM we tried to set up a backup agents management system and tallying centre, you Junet Mohamed, frustrated it and had it dismantled, almost leading to a fallout between Raila and his loyal lieutenant and fellow political detainee, Oduor On’gwen, the Executive Director of ODM, who was also my deputy,” he said.
Meanwhile, Migori Senator Eddy Oketch has written to the ODM party seeking the removal of Edwin Sifuna, citing gross misconduct.
In a motion inked by his advocates, Senator Oketch argued that Sifuna has been holding the party’s position “to blatant and arrogant violation” of ODM’s constitution.
He argued that Sifuna has been deemed to have resigned from the political party after he allegedly promoted the ideology, interests or policies of another political party, violating Section 14A (1) (e) of the Political Parties Act .
Oketch further held that Sifuna has failed to observe the party’s code of conduct and failed to obey lawful decisions made by the party organs.
He cited Sifuna’s recent public remarks on confidential ODM affairs concerning the sourcing and dispatch of the party’s funding of the 2022 presidential campaigns.
By Bonface Mulyungi
