It is hard to tell whether studying at the University of Nairobi gave ODM Secretary-General Edwin Watenya Sifuna ideas on how to introduce himself as "mimi ndiye Sifuna (I am the Sifuna)” as he has lately been introducing himself at public engagements. But then here we are.
The Sifuna. A man who is being hunted while hunting. The firebrand who is supposed to be the spokesman of his party but has somehow become the man party members are speaking most about.
From his time at the heart of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) politics and now at the Orange Democratic Movement, Mr Sifuna has either been starting fires or firefighting.
At LSK, he was an outspoken member of the Okoa LSK movement that challenged the status quo, especially regarding the 2016 LSK elections and the planned investment in a construction project. In 2015, the faction saw the cancellation of an annual meeting.
In ODM, where he is the fourth secretary-general of the 20-year-old party that has had Anyang Nyong’o, Ababu Namwamba, and Agnes Zani (acting) in that position before, Mr Sifuna faces the uphill task of retaining a position he has held since 2018.
Edwin Sifuna: I don't fear anyone and I'm ready for whoever comes my way
It is all to do with the direction the party should take after the death of its leader Raila Odinga last year. Being tightly in the corner that wouldn’t wish to side with President William Ruto in next year’s General Election, he has clashed openly and spectacularly with the pro-Ruto voices in ODM.
Not one to back down from a fight, he has even described some elements of his party in not-so-flattering terms. With Migori Senator Eddy Oketch having initiated a motion for his removal from the secretary-general role, and with the party’s patrons having been forced to call for order, Mr Sifuna is walking on thin ice.
To Mr Sifuna, however, speaking up is not optional. In an interview with this writer in 2023, he explained the place of courage in his life.
“I don’t think there is anybody who was born fearless. Everybody feels fear, by the way,” he said. “But you have to realise that sometimes fear should not paralyse you. As long as you have conviction that what you are doing is right for the people, you cannot afford to be paralysed by fear. And sometimes it takes boldness to achieve some of the things that I have achieved in the past. And I think if I had not been bold in those moments, or if I had been paralysed by fear, I doubt that I would be here.”
On Wednesday, during an event to posthumously mark Odinga’s 81st birthday, Mr Sifuna said: “It will not be me to wreck mzee’s party. I made that promise to mzee, and I want to repeat it here.”
Saying he was ready to let bygones be bygones, he said there is no one in the party that he wouldn’t sit down with. Explaining the friction in ODM involving him and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, among others, he said: “Sometimes mambo inanchemkanga (sometimes things boil over).”
In the petition to oust Mr Sifuna, Mr Oketch says the former Musingu High School student is usurping the party leader’s powers, divulging confidential information, among other vices.
Fighting the current fire, which has somehow drawn in former president Uhuru Kenyatta, Mr Sifuna has been throwing metaphor after metaphor. One of them is: “Wanasema Nairobi ukipata sponsor mpya , usianze kutukana yule alikutoa kwa bedsitter (They say that in Nairobi, once you get a new sponsor, don’t start insulting the one who got you out of a bedsitter).”
