Is the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party single, searching, in a relationship or things are complicated? To know the status, you just need to follow what Suna East MP Junet Sheikh Nuh Mohamed is saying.
In the last two engagements that the party has had with the ruling administration, Junet has been the windsock indicating the strength and direction of the relationship that ODM is in.
Last week, he came out to remind President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) that ODM has options.
This was against the backdrop of what ODM considers an affront by the ruling party through alleged poaching of some of its elected members, asking ODM members in government to distance themselves from the party, among other actions.
Four days later, the ODM’s central committee issued a statement whose punchline was: “We demand respect from the UDA party.” It referred to recent utterances by UDA leaders “aimed at causing anxiety and disquiet among our members”.
Suna East MP and National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohamed during an interview in his office at Parliament Buildings on January 15, 2025.
2021 was a year to the General Election, just like 2026. That year, which was also three years into ODM’s “handshake” arrangement with President Uhuru Kenyatta, Junet issued a warning shot to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government after controversial by-elections that had seen election materials carted away as police officers watched.
“If you allow politicians or goons to go into a polling station and take out IEBC officers and voting materials, that is now anarchy. That is not even lawlessness; that is anarchy,” he said in March 2021. “The handshake hasn’t locked our mouths. We will talk when things are good and when they are bad.”
After the Azimio coalition that comprised ODM and Mr Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party among other parties failed to secure the late Raila Odinga the presidency in the 2022 General Election, Junet was among the first to speak up as the ties that bound the Uhuru-Raila partnership started weakening.
He is on record accusing Mr Kenyatta of sabotaging Odinga’s bid to become the chairman of the African Union Commission in elections held in February 2025.
After ODM entered the broad-based relationship with UDA, the former Migori mayor did not spare Mr Kenyatta of stinging criticism. For instance in May 2025, Junet claimed that Mr Kenyatta entered the handshake arrangement because he was scared of protests.
“Let him not lie to people,” he said. “He was scared of the [protesting] youth. That is why he did the handshake in [2018].”
He also tore into Mr Kenyatta in February this year, accusing him of attempting to wreck ODM after Mr Odinga’s death.
“Our problem is the former president called Uhuru Kenyatta. He is the one ruining our party,” he said. “Please, leave our party alone. You have your party, Jubilee, and you have refused to retire, staying on as the chairman of the party.”
National Assembly Minority Whip Junet Mohamed.
Furthermore, Junet in March described Mr Kenyatta as “rais bubu” (mute president). His attacks against Mr Kenyatta inspired a famous remark in January by embattled ODM secretary-general Edwin Sifuna: “In Nairobi, there is a saying that if you get a new sponsor, don’t start insulting the one who got you out of a bedsitter.”
Indeed, when the handshake agreement lasted, Junet was a big defender of Mr Kenyatta’s administration. In one instance in March 2021, he said: “They will wait till the end of the world…there is no day we will go away from the handshake.”
Until last week’s outburst, he had also been a fierce defender of the broad-based arrangement, describing it as the path to a cohesive country.
For now, it appears, he will be signalling the alignments of ODM until the cows come home.
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