By Anderson Ojwang
In an elaborate and well-calculated move, the civil war in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) could be designed to make it a regional party and basically a Luo party.
And hardly even 90 days before the immediate former party leader Raila Amolo Odinga was buried, allegations of plots to auction his party have emerged.
One camp, led by Siaya Governor James Orengo, claims that a section of the party leadership had been paid to sell out the party and claims he has documentary evidence to that effect.
While the other camp, led by Party Director of Elections Junet Mohammed, claimed there was a plot to auction the party to former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
On Sunday, Orengo said there was a scheme meant to devalue the party from a national outfit and regionalise it as a Nyanza party.
Orengo said that while other ODM strongholds have remained quiet, the civil war was being waged in Nyanza and specifically by the Luo.
“I see an attempt to try and drive ODM to become purely regional, if not a Luo party. The elements of the party from other regions are fairly quiet when we have this civil war within the party,” he said.
Orengo, during a TV interview on Monday night, said the move was meant to muzzle ODM and make it a small or marginal party in a probable alliance with UDA or Kenya Kwanza.
“When you do that analysis and when we choose to work with Kenya Kwanza or UDA, most likely ODM is going to be a small party if they push that into Luo Nyanza basically.
We must be very conscious of that effort, and you can see some pronouncements which make ODM look like a regional party, but it is a national party,” he said.
Orengo warned that if the party leaders were not careful, they may be driven in that direction of ODM becoming a regional party.
In the recent survey by InfoTrack on political party popularity, ODM came second at 19 per cent, behind the ruling party UDA of President William Ruto at 23 per cent.
Jubilee Party of former President Uhuru Kenyatta and DCP of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua tied at five per cent respectively, while Wiper Party of Kalonzo Musyoka stood at four per cent.
Orengo maintained that the plot to auction ODM was real, saying, “For the moment they remain unnamed, but it is quite clear out there that there are people going out of their way to try to get the ODM party into an arrangement that does not make sense.
Before getting into a coalition, it is important to take an audit and put down matters that need to be addressed before you get into the arrangement,” he said.
But Junet, speaking over the weekend, claimed Uhuru was enticing some of the ODM leaders with financial support to revitalise the party in order to join the united opposition.
“If you want to be party leader, go and form your party. There are people who want to take over our party. There are people who are being paid by former President Uhuru Kenyatta. We want to tell them, if they think Dr Oburu has no ability, we are his foot soldiers and we will fight to the bitter end,” he claimed.
Junet promised that 2026 would be an all-out battle and that there would be premium tears, and that they would not be scared by cheap threats.
“Call us brokers, call us thieves, we are not leaving the broad-based government. It is you who is going to leave ODM. Uhuru Kenyatta failed to make Raila president despite having the instruments of power,” he said.
He said it was only the party leader, Dr Oburu, who is mandated by the constitution to run for the presidency.
“There are some within ODM who say that ODM must have a presidential candidate. The constitution says the presidential candidate is the party leader. Dr Oburu is the one who will tell us if he wants to be the presidential candidate or not. This is not a party of drunkards,” he said.
Kisumu Woman Representative Ruth Odinga said it was wrong for some party leaders to say that the party would not field candidates in all positions and that ODM should field a presidential candidate.
“We want to have a stronger ODM, and there is no political party that can stand up and say they are not going to field candidates in any of the vacant positions. As for me, ODM will be strong; even me, Adhiambo, I will want to become president. Why don’t you allow me to go as the party presidential candidate?” she said.
Saboti MP Caleb Amisi, on his X handle, wrote, “ODM has approximately seven million members. We have seen members of the Central Management Committee publicly announcing the sale of the party.
One team was dispatched to Ruto’s Kilgoris home on Friday the 26th, and the other team to Uhuru.
As bona fide members, we request the two teams to do their maths well in their negotiations and appropriate the funds to all the 47 branches across the country.”
