Junet: This is my side of the story

Grief hangs over this moment like a low, permanent cloud. The absence of Raila Odinga—mentor, shield, and political North Star—has altered the party’s gravitational pull. His towering presence, once capable of silencing dissent with a glance or a phrase, is gone, leaving behind a vacuum that speeches and slogans cannot fill. In that space, old hierarchies tremble, reverence gives way to calculation, and Junet is left to carry a legacy whose moral authority no longer commands automatic obedience.    

Outside the party’s inner chambers, the pressure is relentless. In Suna East, rivals test the ground with quiet confidence, mistaking restraint for retreat and grief for weakness. 

Nationally, power brokers recalibrate, reading the moment as an opening to redraw alliances and settle old scores. In Kenyan politics, vulnerability is not mourned—it is exploited, measured, and acted upon with ruthless efficiency.

Within ODM itself, the cracks are widening. Factions harden, whispers grow bolder, and yesterday’s loyalists reposition as tomorrow’s contenders.

Junet, once the embodiment of party discipline, Baba’s right-hand man, now occupies what some consider the loneliest terrain in politics: the man expected to impose order even as the rules that sustained that order dissolve beneath him. Every move is scrutinised, every silence interpreted, every assertion tested for resolve.

In this exclusive interview, Mr Mohamed, who is also the National Assembly Minority leader, speaks from inside the storm — about grief that turned political, loyalty stretched to its limits, and the brutal arithmetic of survival in an unforgiving system. 

It is a conversation not only about the fate of one man, but about a party at war with itself and a democracy once again confronting the cost of power when certainty collapses and endurance becomes the final measure of leadership. He spoke to Nation’s Samwel Owino and Justus Wanga from his office in the Parliament building.

Where were you on the day Gen Z invaded Parliament (on June 25, 2024)?

I was in the House. I left the main building of parliament and I went to 18th floor of Bunge Towers, the new building. And he (Raila) called me. He was in Malindi. I could see he was very concerned. “It looks like the country might get out of hand.” I told him it seems so.

If they move from here towards the Hill (State House), then that means you will remain in Malindi, I told him. Maybe it's only you who can come to Nairobi. Some of us might end up going back to Migori, I told him. He laughed, then he told me, let's see how it goes.

After that, the military was deployed, an idea he didn’t like. He was of the view the soldiers’ role should have been limited to reinforcing the police, in the background.  

What don’t we know about how ODM ended up in the broad-based arrangement with President William Ruto?

When President Ruto dissolved his cabinet after the Gen Zs did their thing, he reached out to Baba and told him that the way things are going, it was not good for everyone. He wanted them to join forces. Hours to their meeting, Raila asked me to join him-He didn’t give much details, that’s how I ended up in the room where the current arrangement was engineered.

That is the meeting that settled on Oburu (ODM party leader Oburu Oginga) as the chairman of a broad-based caucus that had in the likes of Prof Adams Oloo, Baba’s (Mr Raila Odinga’s) lawyer Paul Mwangi and others from our side. Ruto too had his people in the team.

Raila was not convinced that the government could handle the situation at that time, he was not enthusiastic about joining the government either. He wanted the country to be stable but wanted a national conference in Bomas where everyone including the Gen Zs and the political leaders would discuss issues affecting the nation but the President couldn’t wait longer because there was no Cabinet then.

What was Raila’s 2027 election’s game plan?

Let nobody lie to you, Raila was still planning to vie for the presidency. He did not believe there was anybody in the current opposition rank and file with the capacity to defeat President Ruto. He believed that convincing the united opposition to rally behind his ticket as one unit would see him win.

In the event he chose not to vie, he said he would strengthen his party and put it in the broad based government formally. 

He told me that he would even convince Ruto to back him in 2027 under the broad based arrangement, then perhaps Ruto comes back in 2032-they were a whole lot of simulations. 

Did Raila ever tell you that ODM would back President Ruto’s re-election like some of your colleagues are saying? 

No. We had not reached there. All those decisions were to be made this year, 2026, had he lived.

Some have given the party a few months before into split into a dozen factions, will the Orange party survive the storm?

The strength of Baba was the structures he put in place in ODM. Baba has never made any decision, or has never taken any decision politically without taking it through the central committee of the party. So the strength of ODM is in its structures. What the party says is what is decided by the organs. That's how Raila trained us. 

Does Oburu possess what it takes to steer ODM? Some including his own kin have publicly expressed doubt  

Yes, he has a lot of experience politically. I can tell you, anything we did with Raila the first person he would call is Oburu. Oburu has the experience, Oburu has the knowledge, and Oburu has the blood to take us and to hold us together as ODM.

People might talk about his age — he's old, this true, but age is just a number. So long as your faculties are functioning, and your body organs are still functioning, you are good to go. We're not asking him to go to a ring and fight with people that we can do for him. We're telling him, please, chair our meetings and let's make a decision in a collegial manner. There are people who are old and are running businesses, they are many and way older than Oburu.

You have been called a broker and accused of selling ODM to Ruto. Are you a broker?

ODM cannot be sold. ODM is a public institution. So if by having a deal with the ruling party is selling ODM, and that's how you want to deter us from entering any negotiations, we will not listen to you.

They can say anything they want. They can call us brokers, they can call us thieves, call us anything. Feel free. It’s for fact that members of ODM are in the broad based government. 

Party Secretary General Edwin Sifuna says you are a broker leading the party astray, is his position tenable?

Well, I don't want to go to that debate.

He says you’re the enemy of the party. Are you? 

I think I want to avoid that debate because that's a personal issue. I want to refrain myself from engaging in that debate. It’s a non-issue.

Uhuru Kenyatta stands accused of stoking dissent in your party, what is he guilty of?

We have to understand that the former President is still the party leader of Jubilee and still active in politics.

It’s a fact that he was a friend of Raila, we cannot deny that but there are people including myself who believe that some of the disorganisations and counter accusations in ODM is partly associated to him because He wanted us to remain in the Azimio group where Jubilee and ODM were, in one basket.

He wanted us to go in the next elections like that without considering that part of ODM is now in broad based government. I think he wanted an extension of the last election in 2027, Raila versus Ruto season two.

With the benefit of hindsight, do you think Uhuru genuinely wanted Raila to be president?

On the face of it, yes. But he didn’t put in any effort to achieve that. We are all Kenyans and we know what happened in 2007, 2013 and 2017 which was nullified. So 2022 was peculiar in my view, things would have been different if everyone played their role.

He should have made Raila President the way Kibaki was made President in 2007 and the way he made himself President in 2013 and 2017.

Are you saying Uhuru should have rigged Raila in?

I'm not saying that but he had all the instruments to make Raila the President and he did not do it and one day I will speak about the role his people played in doing that. That time will come.

Give us a hint?

You will have to be patient.

Did you pocket the money meant to pay agents in the 2022 elections like it has been alleged? 

Many times when those accusations came up, Baba told me not to respond saying he knows what happened and he also kept me close to him after elections and made me the Minority leader in the National Assembly. Would He if I had betrayed the course?

The truth is money was with Uhuru’s brother-Muhoho Kenyatta. He was the chairman of the finance campaign committee then there was another guy called Patrick Mburu who had a nice laptop and told me he has put all the agents’ information on laptop and that he had connected them and with just a press of a button, He would send all that money to the agents.

Raila had his own campaign money from his own pocket and contribution from friends but the agents’ money, the Uhuru group told us that we should leave that to them. It is something on record and I can swear by the Quran, it was with Muhoho Kenyatta. We are all alive, we can have conversations about it. I have all the messages in my phone to date.

How do I prepare agents in Mt Kenya? We were told the Chiefs would do it. So if the money was not sent to agents by press of a button as I was told then Patrick Mburu should tell us, he is still alive, we can do reconciliation of the books.

Since Raila never ruled working with his former colleagues in the opposition like you say, do you consider teaming up with them in next year’s polls?

If UDA delivers in the negotiation in accordance with our expectations, it ends there. But if UDA does not deliver in accordance with our expectations as a party, then we're open to discuss with other people that's why we are giving them first priority. That's how negotiations are done.

What is the chance of the UDA and ODM coalition, assuming you agree on a formula, winning the next elections?

I don't think there would be a serious election in the country. It will be a done deal. We will win by over 60 percent because those are two serious machines coming together 

Rigathi Gachagua recently said that if Oburu were to join them, the united opposition would consider making him the presidential candidate. Would you take up the offer?

No, Oburu knows very well. He can negotiate with anybody in this world, other than the (former deputy president) Gachagua. He knows that. That's the position of the party.

It's a silent agreement in the party that he (Oburu) can negotiate with anyone in the world but Rigathi Gachagua. He can even negotiate with Joseph Kony of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of Uganda but not with Gachagua.

What will be ODM’s key demand to back Ruto in the 2027 polls? 

The party has decided through the Central Management Committee that they are going to engage parties starting with UDA who have reciprocated. We are going to engage as equal partners with an open mind and every position in government, including the one for president, is on the table.

Nothing is reserved for ODM or UDA. If we don’t get the president, you can guess which other seat is available. Let’s be honest, in the absence of Raila, the dynamics have changed. Before, we had ODM and Raila- two different institutions that were working concurrently but now we are only remaining with brand ODM.

Raila left a strong brand called ODM and all the strongholds he made have decided to remain with him. When we go round the country, people are still sympathetic to us because of Raila and in this coming elections, the party will be strong.

We are going to weigh our options. We are mature enough now to know that political power is not just about getting the presidency. For the first time in history, the minister for finance is from ODM something Raila didn’t get even when he was prime minister. Raila told me that when he demanded the Finance minister position from Kibaki in 2008, the response was firm and terse, “the president is first and foremost the finance minister and so in short, all you are saying is you want my job.” He never got it.

So if at the moment without even firing a shot, we already have some positions in the cabinet, so what will happen if we fire some shots in 2027?

Because we will definitely fire some shots.

We supported Uhuru Kenyatta in 2018 (with the ‘handshake’ deal) to stabilise his government but never even appointed a minister for ‘toilet’ from ODM.

Being a Raila orphan, some say now you cannot win the Suna East seat. Is it the end of the road for you? 

I’m going back to Suna East constituency. Those are my people. I can never abandon them for anything because that is where I grew up, I was the mayor there. Anyone who thinks he can remove me; I welcome him to the contest in 2027. 

It’s true, Raila was a political father. But tell me anyone in ODM who has not been made by Raila Odinga, including the senior ones, and the ministers. After former President Moi, the person who has made many leaders is Raila.

What’s your relationship with Ida Odinga post Raila?

Very good. We talk, we consult. She is the matriarch that has remained behind now to guide us on how we should move forward. I have a lot of regards for her and she knows it.

But you were absent at Baba’s 81st posthumous birthday celebrations last week, weren’t you invited?

I was invited but I was out of the country in India. It was more of a family event and the people who were there were mostly MPs from Nairobi. It would be reading too much if we interpret it in any other way.

[email protected]; [email protected]