ODM leaders off track in Ruto deal

Also of concern is that ODM chair Gladys Wanga, the Homa Bay governor, and other senior figures—such as Cabinet secretaries John Mbadi and Opiyo Wandayi, and National Assembly Leader of Minority Junet Mohamed—are more focused on pushing for slots in the feeding trough rather than in implementation of the 10-point agenda that the late party doyen Raila Odinga signed with President Ruto.

The leaders speaking at a series of events over the weekend were not really saying anything new, but echoing a stance previously voiced by the party leader, Siaya Senator Oburu Oginga.

In going public with their pleas for more slots in government, instead of asking for structured negotiation of a pre-election pact, it is clear that the ODM leaders are simply playing to the gallery.

They have already genuflected before President Ruto and indicated that they will be part of his campaign machinery come the next elections. It follows that those purported demands are nothing more than cheap public relations gimmicks aimed at placating a support base that is becoming increasingly restive.

ODM strongholds

If the public adulation being bestowed on party “rebels” at events in ODM strongholds is anything to go by, Ms Wanga and company are quavering at the impact secretary-general Edwin Sifuna, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, Saboti MP Caleb Amisi, Raila’s daughter Winnie, and others who refuse to join the Ruto 2027 cheerleading squad, are having on the ground.

At one recent event, Ms Wanga, clearly rattled by the applause Mr Owino got, was reduced to pathetically whining that the MP had hired crowds to cheer his arrival.

It is clear that post-Raila ODM is facing an existential crisis and a major leadership vacuum. Those presently at the helm of the party are far removed from its ideological founding principles, seeing it as just another vehicle for political wheeling and dealing for personal gain.

The fact that they place a premium on the pursuit for places at the high table while largely ignoring the implementation of the 10-point agenda that earned them opportunity to eat the crumbs thrown their way is a betrayal of everything the party founder and legendary fighter for freedom and justice stood for.

We have heard the lie often repeated by Wanga, Oginga, Mbadi, Wandayi and others that Raila was committed to supporting President Ruto in 2027 as extension of the broad-based government arrangement. None of them have ever provided the tiniest bit of evidence to back that blatant falsehood.

The 10-point agenda Raila signed with the president speaks for itself. It is available for everyone to read, and to understand that it does not have a single clause on a 2027 election partnership.

There is also not a single occasion where Raila wrote or spoke on any coalition deal. What is on record, from Raila’s own public statements, is that ODM’s fidelity to the broad-based government arrangement will depend on full implementation of the 10-point agenda. Raila had also publicly stated that ODM reserves the right to field its own candidate for president.

Peddling falsehoods

Anyone now peddling falsehoods to the effect that the broad-based government pact extends to the 2027 elections is betraying everything that Raila stood for, and also betraying the ideology and principles under which ODM was founded to become Kenya’s most enduring and consistent political formation.

Relegating the 10-point agenda to the scrapheap is another monumental betrayal. That pact was signed partly to address the issues raised by the Gen Z revolt of 2027 that had brought the Kenya Kwanza regime to its knees.

Ignoring implementation is not just a betrayal of Raila, but betrayal of the Kenyan people who believed it would address pressing national priorities. These include justice for victims of extra-judicial killings, abductions, torture and other human rights violations. There are also concerns still to be addressed on runaway corruption, extortionate taxation, the ballooning national debt, profligacy of the parasitic leadership class, closed government, inequitable distribution of public resources and a compromised or electoral management body.

The same sorry cast of characters is also working aggressively to reduce the venerable ODM to an ethnic political formation rather than the national movement it had grown into. Baba must be turning in his grave.

I was quite bemused to see ODM leaders asking to be given more positions in government as they work to support President William Ruto’s re-election in 2027.

The operative word here is “given”, which suggests that the ODM leadership is not demanding its rightful stake in a negotiated power-sharing formula, but begging the president for favours.

Also of concern is that ODM chair Gladys Wanga, the Homa Bay Governor, and other senior figures—such as Cabinet secretaries John Mbadi and Opiyo Wandayi, and National Assembly Leader of Minority Junet Mohamed—are more focused on pushing for slots in the feeding trough rather than in implementation of the 10-point agenda that the late party doyen Raila Odinga signed with President Ruto.

The leaders speaking at a series of events over the weekend were not really saying anything new, but echoing a stance previously voiced by the party leader, Siaya Senator Oburu Oginga.

In going public with their pleas for more slots in government, instead of asking for structured negotiation of a pre-election pact, it is clear that the ODM leaders are simply playing to the gallery.

They have already genuflected before President Ruto and indicated that they will be part of his campaign machinery come the next elections. It follows that those purported demands are nothing more than cheap public relations gimmicks aimed at placating a support base that is becoming increasingly restive.

ODM strongholds

If the public adulation being bestowed on party “rebels” at events in ODM strongholds is anything to go by, Ms Wanga and company are quavering at the impact secretary-general Edwin Sifuna, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, Saboti MP Caleb Amisi, Raila’s daughter Winnie, and others who refuse to join the Ruto 2027 cheerleading squad, are having on the ground.

At one recent event, Ms Wanga, clearly rattled by the applause Mr Owino got, was reduced to pathetically whining that the MP had hired crowds to cheer his arrival.

It is clear that post-Raila ODM is facing an existential crisis and a major leadership vacuum. Those presently at the helm of the party are far removed from its ideological founding principles, seeing it as just another vehicle for political wheeling and dealing for personal gain.

The fact that they place a premium on the pursuit for places at the high table while largely ignoring the implementation of the 10-point agenda that earned them opportunity to eat the crumbs thrown their way is a betrayal of everything the party founder and legendary fighter for freedom and justice stood for.

We have heard the lie often repeated by Wanga, Oginga, Mbadi, Wandayi and others that Raila was committed to supporting President Ruto in 2027 as extension of the broad-based government arrangement. None of them have ever provided the tiniest bit of evidence to back that blatant falsehood.

The 10-point agenda Raila signed with the president speaks for itself. It is available for everyone to read, and to understand that it does not have a single clause on a 2027 election partnership.

There is also not a single occasion where Raila wrote or spoke on any coalition deal. What is on record, from Raila’s own public statements, is that ODM’s fidelity to the broad-based government arrangement will depend on full implementation of the 10-point agenda. Raila had also publicly stated that ODM reserves the right to field its own candidate for president.

Peddling falsehoods

Anyone now peddling falsehoods to the effect that the broad-based government pact extends to the 2027 elections is betraying everything that Raila stood for, and also betraying the ideology and principles under which ODM was founded to become Kenya’s most enduring and consistent political formation.

Relegating the 10-point agenda to the scrapheap is another monumental betrayal. That pact was signed partly to address the issues raised by the Gen Z revolt of 2027 that had brought the Kenya Kwanza regime to its knees.

Ignoring implementation is not just a betrayal of Raila, but betrayal of the Kenyan people who believed it would address pressing national priorities. These include justice for victims of extra-judicial killings, abductions, torture and other human rights violations. There are also concerns still to be addressed on runaway corruption, extortionate taxation, the ballooning national debt, profligacy of the parasitic leadership class, closed government, inequitable distribution of public resources and a compromised or electoral management body.

The same sorry cast of characters is also working aggressively to reduce the venerable ODM to an ethnic political formation rather than the national movement it had grown into. Baba must be turning in his grave.

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Mr Gaitho, an independent journalist, is former NMG Managing Editor for Special Projects. [email protected]