By Anderson Ojwang

The week of politics of chest thumping, planning, bravado and threats to scuttle last Sunday’s Linda Mwananchi rally in Kisumu came a cropper and fell on flat feet.

Despite the deployment of heavy resources and lobbying by the Broad-Based government operatives to deflate and scuttle the Linda Mwananchi rally in Kisumu, it turned out as a miserable failure.

If anything, it was a wake-up call that Kisumu politics is local and that strangers and outsiders have no impact or say over what happens in the lake city.

The successful Linda Mwananchi rally has now come back to politically “maul” the opponents, who are mostly strangers in the lake city politics after bragging about their ability to stop the event.

All the tricks and strategies that were deployed by the pro-government operatives, including goodies to the boda boda operators and use of local politicians among others, failed to yield any success. It was a total flop and a slap on the master.

The boda boda wing

The government operatives successfully brought the boda boda operators into their fold.

Internal Security Principal Secretary Dr. Raymond Omollo, in a move meant to woo them into the fold, directed the immediate release of all boda boda motorcycles impounded over petty offences, saying the move is meant to restore livelihoods for operators across the Nyanza region.

Omollo, who had a forum with boda boda leaders from Kisumu County’s seven constituencies, said the directive stems from President William Ruto and is already being implemented by the Nyanza Regional Police Commander.

“All motorbikes held on account of petty offences will be released. This directive is being effected to ease the burden on operators and restore their means of livelihood,” said Omollo.

The chairman of the Kisumu Boda Boda Association, Jacob Ochieng Ogango, ahead of the rally visited the Linda Mwananchi venue at Kowuor Ground and declared they do not want political violence in Kisumu.

“We are here at Kowuor Ground, and we fear there may be chaos. The one-term crusaders are known for evoking violence. We are in broad-based government and fully support President William Ruto. Kisumu is a no-go zone for one-term. We will not allow James Orengo and Babu Owino to hold the rally in Kisumu. One-term is not allowed in Kisumu. Kisumu is ODM, Kisumu is Ruto and Dr Oburu Oginga,” he said.

But the boda boda failed to stop the rally, and some of them are counting losses after their motorcycles were burnt.

The Budget Chairman, Sam Atandi

The Chairman of the Budget Committee in the National Assembly, Mr Sam Atandi, who positioned himself as the master planner and plotter to scuttle the rally and traversed the county in a chopper, found himself licking his wounds.

Atandi wrote on his X handle: “No imposter will be allowed into Kisumu. Kisumu city must remain a peaceful city.”

He said Linda Mwananchi were not accepted in Kisumu and would not hold any rally in the lake city.

“I am telling you, they will not be accepted in Kisumu. There will be no rally in Kisumu,” he said.

But Embakasi East MP Babu Owino dismissed Atandi as a stranger in Kisumu politics who can only control village Siaya politics.

“Mweshimiwa Sam Atandi, you want to plan for Kisumu people. We know the people you are trying to use. Atandi, don’t bring trouble to Kisumu. You failed miserably,” he said.

After bragging in the media and holding a series of strategic meetings to contain and scuttle the rally, Atandi found himself humbled and relegated to the periphery.

The ODM National Chairperson Gladys Wanga troupe

The ODM National Chairperson Gladys Wanga’s political troop in Kisumu, led by Kisumu West MP Roza Buyu, MCA Seth Kanga alias Adui Nyang, former Kisumu Central MP Fred Ouda, and her younger brother Robert Nyasuna, failed to deliver. They were vanquished and sent back to the drawing board.

During a recent rally in Kisumu organized by Wanga, leaders allied to her had threatened Babu, Siaya Governor James Orengo and ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna with dire consequences. The threats were actually frog croaks that don’t deter cows from drinking water.

For Wanga, her desire to be the Luo kingpin fell flat on Sunday after her team failed to deliver. If anything, she has made more enemies not only in Homa Bay but also in Kisumu, Siaya and Migori, where she plans to plant her loyal candidates.

Ouda’s threat to Babu, a miscalculation

Ouda could have politically miscalculated his political move and attack on Babu, a resident of the sprawling Nyalenda slums.

For Nyalenda residents, Babu represents hope and inspiration for them that something good can come from the slums.

The threat by Ouda to Babu was actually an attack on the Nyalenda slums members, and this explains why they turned out in huge numbers to give protection to the Linda Mwananchi team during the church service.

Ouda had declared during a rally in Rangumo that “You can take Linda Mwananchi rally anywhere else but don’t try it in Kisumu. Whatever will happen to you, you will only have yourself to blame.”

The Orengo-Babu team dismantled the Broad-Based operatives and exposed them as political novices that the President cannot rely on to win the Nyanza votes.

And the message is that the people’s power is more powerful and that Babu-Orengo have the people while the other wing have the resources.

By Anderson Ojwang

Kisumu stood, spoke, and declared where the spirit of the enigma, the late Raila Amolo Odinga, lives.

It was a moment to determine the “owner of the music” and the “thief” between Linda Ground and Linda Mwananchi, and indeed Kisumu rose to make a clear signal.

Linda Ground is the moderate wing of Raila that got into a political arrangement with President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) during the Gen Z uprising over high taxes and the cost of living.

Linda Mwananchi faction is the militant wing of Raila, a fallback strategy if the alliance with President Ruto flopped, and this is qualified by his last directive that no member of the party should campaign for two terms.

Six months after the death of Raila, Kisumu woke up again to stake its position in the national political map and dispensation.

Reality check for President Ruto

It was a re-awakening call to President William Ruto that he could not succeed in having control of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

During Raila’s burial, he declared that he would not allow the party to fall into the wrong hands of those opposed to the broad-based government, but he has miserably failed to inherit the Enigma’s political constituency.

Even the recent confirmation of Siaya Senator Dr Oginga Oburu, Governor Gladys Wanga as the National Chairperson, Governor Simba Arati and his counterpart Abdulsamad Nassir as deputy party leaders has paid little or no dividend in Ruto’s political game plan.

For President Ruto, reliance on Linda Ground, Raila’s political orphans, seems costly as they are far removed from the reality on the ground.

The hope that Alego MP Sam Atandi and a section of MPs from the region could have marshalled support to scuttle the rally fell flat and left the team punctured, deflated, and annihilated.

Red flag for Linda Ground

For Oburu, Kisumu exposed the team’s lack of political knack, grasp, and strategy in countering the Siaya Governor James Orengo-led wing.

Kisumu Women Representative Ruth Odinga said Kisumu spoke, and it was a wake-up call to Linda Ground that all was not well and they would perish.

“I am happy that Kisumu has finally re-established our political stand in the country. It is a reawakening moment for Linda Ground to either agree to talk or lose out altogether. The signs are very clear. They must stop chest thumping and accept reality on the ground. We must admit all and scatter none,” she said in an interview.

ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna formally introduced Orengo as the party leader amid cheers and shouts.

“Our party leader Governor Orengo, come over here. Orengo, we want to thank you for supporting the youths and mentoring us in politics,” he said.

But Oburu on Friday dismissed Orengo’s alleged ouster as a pipe dream and said he cannot be the party leader of ODM.

“Orengo can only be the party leader of birds and not ODM. He doesn’t have what it takes to be the party leader of ODM,” he said.

Orengo’s declaration that Linda Mwananchi will sponsor candidates in all elective seats and the reception from the crowd was so telling.

Decades of marred ODM nominations and destroyed political careers have been haunting the party, and the recent announcement by the party that it had opened a portal for aspirants received a mixed signal.

The declaration by Orengo that he had ousted Oburu as the party leader has gone ahead to confine Oburu to the periphery, as most of his allies are also scheming and plotting on how to take over the mantle from him.

The Sifuna storm

The failure by Linda Ground to kick out the Secretary General, Mr Edwin Sifuna, from the party has continued to send a wrong signal and boosted the SG’s rating nationally.

Speaking in Kisumu, Sifuna said: “I am Sifuna. Through your prayers and God’s love, I am still the Secretary General of ODM. I stand here in Kisumu as the SG of ODM. We are Raila’s students, and he never mentored cowards.”

He said his return to Kisumu was emotional and that Luhya and Luo unity will not be broken by some political quarters.

“This is my first time returning to Kisumu after the burial of my boss. We were together in the stadium, and it was peaceful. I want to tell you, thank you. Yesterday, I went to Bondo to speak with my boss. I want to thank my brother Babu Owino for bringing us to Kisumu and Nyalenda, where he grew up,” he said.

Sifuna’s presence as the SG of the party continues to undermine Linda Ground’s hold on power and negates their political agenda.

Goons and Osotsi’s assault

The assault on Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi and the linking of the goons to the broad-based arrangements is working negatively on President Ruto’s political agenda and endearing the masses to the Orengo wing.

Sifuna and Babu said they had been threatened that they would not hold a rally in Kisumu, and today was a confirmation of their failure.

“There are people who told us we cannot get into Kisumu. They are now in hiding. We are in Kisumu. We are here. Luhya, say thank you for standing with Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi. We will remain united. Luhya and Luo will be united. I will never disrespect the Luo community,” Sifuna said.

Drawing board

For President Ruto, despite having made serious inroads in Nyanza, Linda Ground and his broad-based team have failed to exploit the opportunity.

Instead, they are turning out to be Raila’s baggage he inherited and may be victims of his own political machinations.

He will either be forced to seek political alliance with Linda Mwananchi or suffer the decades of Raila’s political baggage which negated his presidential ambition.

By Anderson Ojwang

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Secretary General Edwin Sifuna took his fight with the party leader Dr Oburu Oginga a notch higher by asking the toughest question that many have been asking in silence: where were you, and why didn’t you go to India to bring Baba home?

Sifuna asked Dr Oburu where he was when he, Sifuna, went to India to bring the body of the fallen hero, the enigma, Raila Amolo Odinga.

“Where were you when I went to bring the body of our party leader from India? This is the question I want Dr Oburu to answer,” Sifuna said.

The Secretary General didn’t stop at that question but added that while he was airborne, they plotted on Raila’s succession and how to throw him out of the party.

Sifuna said Oburu has been traversing the country saying Raila was like his twin brother and that he loved him so much and he can’t believe he is gone.

“You have been claiming that Raila was like your twin brother. Where were you when he needed you most? At his time of death, why didn’t you accompany us to India to bring back the hero?” he asked.

He said his troubles started with Raila’s death and he knew of a plot to kick him out of the party.

“The day Baba died, I woke up in the morning and got a message: ‘Amolo has left us.’ I knew from that day, my troubles had begun,” he said.

Sifuna wondered how Oburu could claim that Raila was disappointed in him, yet they settled on him as the party official to go bring the body home.

“They said, ‘Sifuna, you were the closest friend to Raila, go and bring him back home.’ Now Oburu is claiming that Baba was mad at me. And it’s ironic that I am the one they sent to go bring him back home. Why didn’t Oburu go to bring Baba home? You are his brother. You keep saying that he was like your twin brother. Why didn’t you go for him? Why was Sifuna the person who had to go for him?” he asked.

Dr Oburu in a recent interview claimed the late Raila had grown increasingly frustrated with Sifuna prior to his death, citing an incident in Kakamega where he said the veteran politician was publicly embarrassed.

“What I knew is that Raila was not happy with what Sifuna was doing… he was fed up to the neck,” Oburu said.

Sifuna claimed that while he went to bring Raila’s body from India, Oburu and other party leaders remained behind to plot against him.

“When I went to bring my father back, they remained in Nairobi to plot against me. I told Raila at his burial: I will not break your party, ODM. It is these people who will chase me away. I have been vindicated. Has it not happened? I kept my promise, and it is they who chased me away,” he said.

Speaking amid an ongoing disciplinary process, Oburu accused the Nairobi Senator of defying party structures, skipping key meetings and running parallel political activities, saying ODM could not be held hostage by one individual.

“He is not the Pope. Do you want us to go and beg him? That because you are our Pope, we cannot do without you?” Oburu said.

Raila’s death marked the beginning of the power game. Suba North MP Caroli Omondi has maintained that while the Secretary General was on board a flight to India to collect Raila’s body, back at home, a team was meeting to install Dr Oburu as the acting party leader, bypassing immediate former acting party leader Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o.

Omondi gave an insight into what could be happening in the party and the emergence of a mysterious hand pulling shots in the party.

“There was a very quick transition even before Baba’s body arrived. When Mzee Oburu announced that he had accepted to be the party leader, he said he did not even know that there was a process to make him party leader. What that implies is that that call came from somewhere else. And that worries me a lot. This is because it therefore seems that ODM is getting directions and controls from somewhere else,” he said.

Before Oburu changed his tone on Sifuna, he defended him, saying he espouses the party’s position.

“I met with my friend, Senator Edwin Sifuna, the Secretary General of the ODM Party, this morning. He remains a sober and principled voice, embodying the democratic ideals we believe in as a party,” he wrote on his X handle.

Oburu said the party was united and encouraged everyone to speak their mind, as that was the foundation on which the party was formed.

“We are one. We are united as the ODM Party. As a leader, I believe we must encourage everyone to speak their mind. Differences of opinion do not mean division. Great parties—like ODM—grow through robust debate and unique challenges. That is where the progress and continuity of our party truly lie: in the hands of our young people. Sisi ni chama cha mapinduzi. Tuko imara,” he wrote.

Recently, Sifuna declared that he cannot be Secretary General to Dr Oburu and described him as mediocre.

Will Oburu reply to Sifuna as to why he didn’t go for his younger brother as is often common traditional practice, and why he inherited Raila’s throne while still airborne and before he could even be buried?

By Anderson Ojwang

Kisumu responded to the spirit of the enigma, the late Raila Amolo Odinga.

Sunday was a historic and turning point in the community and country’s politics as Embakasi East MP Babu Owino and Siaya Governor mastered a bloodless coup against ODM party leader Dr Oburu Oginga and the broad-based operatives.

Darfur, Kondele as it is popularly known, rocked with a sea of humanity, who converged to welcome and witness a power transition.

They greeted Orengo as the party leader with chants of “party leader.”

Linda Mwananchi, fresh from reconnecting with the spirit of Raila at Kango Ka Jaramogi on Saturday evening, stoked and thumped authority in Kisumu.

Kisumu went back to its old form when Raila visited the lake town; it swelled and celebrated.

It was like Raila had resurrected and taken charge of the crowd. It was electric and momentous.

For a week, broad-based operatives led by Alego MP Sam Atandi had threatened that Babu and his team were not welcome in Kisumu.

“We want to tell Orengo and his team they are not allowed in Kisumu. We will not allow them to set foot in Kisumu. This is Linda Ground zone, and we cannot allow them here,” he said.

The Atandi wing deployed the bodaboda team to lead their anti-Orengo-Babu campaign, but it all backfired and failed to stop the political tsunami.

From Nyalenda to Kondele, Kisumu’s hot political thermometer, Linda Mwananchi controlled and dictated the tempo.

Babu roared: “They said we will not come here. We are here in Kisumu. We are home. We have the spirit of Raila, and we are unstoppable.”

From Nyalenda, the team traversed every corner of Kisumu, announcing the entry of a new king in town.

For President William Ruto, this was a wake-up call that his partners and operatives are political neophytes without a sound political foundation in Kisumu and Nyanza.

The reliance on the Oburu-led wing and the UDA operatives has come a cropper and does not resonate with the crowd.

And on Sunday, Linda Mwananchi neutralized Oburu and his wing over who controls Kisumu politics, and now they have to go back to the drawing board.

Babu and Orengo have finally had the last laugh over Oburu and his team.