By Anderson Ojwang
The division in the Orange Democratic Movement could be widening despite attempts to reunite the two factions, Linda Mwananchi and Linda Ground.
Despite the claim by MP Caroli Omondi of an overture from the Dr Oburu Oginga-led faction of Linda Ground for a reunion, last weekend’s events told a different story.
From Dr Oburu’s weekend hard-stance interviews and the Linda Mwananchi rally in Nakuru, where Siaya Governor James Orengo declared that he was now the acting party leader, any possible chance of reunion has been dimmed.
History of Ford-K in replay in ODM
If anything, ODM is replicating the old script of the Ford-K power struggle after the death of its founder, Mzee Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Oburu’s father.
The protagonists in the battle then were acting chairman the late Kijana Wamalwa, Ugenya MP James Orengo, and Ford-K Director of Elections, Raila Amolo Odinga.
Raila, in his first contest for the party vice chairman with Orengo, the then presumed heir apparent, lost the election. It marked the first crack in the party.
Boardroom fights over control ensued between Raila and the Wamalwa-Orengo wing. The Wamalwa-Orengo wing outfoxed Raila from the party leadership and retained the support of the majority of Ford-K MPs.
Outsmarted, after a series of failed reconciliation talks, Raila went to the people and outsmarted Orengo in the control of Nyanza and most of Ford-K’s stronghold politics.
Raila resigned and joined the little-known National Development Party, from where he built his political empire, while Orengo and Wamalwa remained with a limping party.
History is in play, with the script of Ford-K replaying in ODM’s new power struggle and a possible eventual split.
Oburu’s hard tackles on Sifuna
The tiff between the party leader, Dr Oburu, and the embattled Secretary General Edwin Sifuna could be the departure point for any possible reunion of the party.
Sifuna’s description of Oburu as mediocre and that he cannot be his secretary general could have broken the camel’s back, and Oburu over the weekend responded by saying that Sifuna was not a Pope to be pestered by ODM.
“The one problem we have with Sifuna is about indiscipline. You cannot have young people who are indisciplined. He described me as mediocre. He wants to be my Secretary General. How do I work with him? He doesn’t want to follow party channels. He wants to follow his own parallel channels,” he said.
Oburu said Sifuna has disregarded party functions and was running parallel programs aimed at undermining his leadership.
“When the party organized a special delegates conference, he organized a parallel one. He doesn’t come for Central Committee and National Executive Committee meetings. He organizes parallel rallies to the party ones. He is not the Pope. We cannot beg him. We cannot plead with Sifuna to come and be our Pope. We want to show that anybody in the party can be disciplined, including the party leader,” he said.
Leadership takeover
Dr Oburu said the faction has no capacity to take over the party leadership because they lack the instruments.
Orengo, speaking in Nakuru during the Linda Mwananchi rally, claimed that he had ousted Oburu from the seat for failing to steer the party forward and adequately prepare for the 2027 general election.
“We know the Secretary General of ODM is Edwin Sifuna, and because Oburu is unable, now Orengo is the acting party leader of ODM. Thank you,” he said.
Oburu wondered: “How do they take leadership positions when they contradict everything from the policy-making organ?”
Oburu said Sifuna was acting shamelessly by running to court instead of facing the party organs.
“How do you go to court shamelessly? You say the party leader is useless and you have no way of removing him. You do not want to follow the right channel to remove him. What will happen?”
Conditions for engagement
Last Sunday’s Linda Mwananchi rally in Nakuru was a statement in the making to the other faction of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Linda Ground, and other political blocks.
The faction is growing from strength to strength while Linda Ground of the party leader Dr Oburu Oginga wobbles and fumbles in its next political course.
Caroli Omondi claimed that Linda Ground had sent feelers that they were ready to engage to reunite the party.
“We are ready to engage with the Oburu faction on condition that it nullifies the recently endorsed party officials. If they are not ready to resign, let them go away,” he said.
Omondi said the Oburu faction must agree to hold a fresh national delegates conference to elect new officials.
Sifuna said the Oburu wing must be ready to denounce any pre-election coalition with President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance.
But Oburu has maintained that for better or worse, ODM will only get into a coalition arrangement with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).
He said ODM was only interested in a coalition with President William Ruto’s party, UDA, and the party has not been swallowed by UDA.
“We as ODM are not interested in other parties we are not negotiating with. We are only particularly interested in UDA, with whom we are going to negotiate,” he said.
Oburu said he was in a good relationship with President Ruto and asked him to rein in some of his party officials causing disunity in the broad-based arrangement.
“I personally, as Dr Oburu Oginga, am in a good relationship with the President, who is the leader of UDA. He needs to discipline and talk to some of his senior officials in his party. That is all we are saying,” he said.
The political patterns of Ford-K are replaying in ODM. A truce may be a mirage.
