THE Orange Democratic Movement has convened a special meeting of its top decision-making organ as internal wrangles threaten to tear the party apart.
The second party organ meeting since Raila passed on last week and the first since his burial will be held in Nairobi on Monday.
The party’s National Executive Council meeting met on Thursday last week and unanimously resolved to install Raila’s elder brother Oburu Oginga as the acting party leader.
The Star has established that Oburu will chair the Central Committee meeting tom address, among other issues, mounting tensions, leadership confusion, and growing factionalism that has rocked the once-united opposition movement.
In the wake of Raila’s absence, senior party figures have clashed over the direction ODM should take especially its engagement with President William Ruto’s UDA after the broad-based arrangement expires in 2027.
This has triggered pressure on the party to rein in some individuals perceived as rebels.
There is growing unease, with a number of ODM bigwigs led by secretary general Edwin Sifuna and James Orengo publicly opposing any 2027 deal with Ruto.
The Star has however established concerted efforts within the party to go slow in dealing with the perceived rebels.
“Don’t expect any radical move. If you listened to Ruth (Raila’s sister) on the day of the burial she relayed Raila’s last massage on the need for a united party. We cannot afford to start early fights,” an Orange House source aware of the intrigues told the Star.
While addressing mourners on Sunday, Ruth disclosed Raila’s last instructions to her including the need to keep the Orange party intact and united.
“Raila told me at 8am the day before he passed on that our party must be united, it must be strong. ODM must unite, we cannot have one ODM here, another one there being led by some other people and another one being led by a few people who think they own the party,” she said.
Party unity is expected to feature prominently during Monday’s meeting.
The Central Committee is made up of the party leader, national chairperson GladysWanga, secretary general Edwin Sifuna, treasurer Timothy Bosire, youth league president John Ketora, women's league chairperson Senator Beth Syengo and the representative of persons with disabilities.
The committee also has executive director Oduor Ong’wen among other party officials.
The meeting was confirmed by ODM deputy party leader and Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir during an interview with Citizen television.
“We will have a special Central Committee meeting that Oburu Oginga will be chairing on Monday with three main agendas focusing on upcoming by-elections, celebrating ODM at 20, where we will celebrate the 80 years we had with our party leader, the late Raila Odinga, and discussing the 10-point agenda signed between UDA and ODM,” Nassir said.
“Our opponents want to see us fall, but we will be meeting where we will forge the way forward and iron out the ideological differences that appear to emerge,” Nassir said
The meeting will also deliberate on the upcoming by-elections as well as the postponed ODM 20th anniversary celebrations that was rescheduled to November 14-16.
Initially, the anniversary was scheduled for October 10-12.
Some sources indicated that the meeting will initiate plans for the national delegates’ conference where new national office bearers will be elected.
The Orange party had conducted county elections in most devolved units and was gearing for national polls to conclude the exercise.
Former ODM director for political affairs and political detainee Wafula Buke said the fight for Orange party will have casualties, given the huge interest the ruling regime has in the Raila party.
Likening the current scenario to the noisy Ford Kenya takeover following the death of Oginga Odinga, he advised the Sifuna camp to consider pursuing another political home as the party is as good as gone.
“Contest over party leadership is not new. The division that existed in Ford Kenya then is comparable to the current situation in ODM, the pro-government and the supporters of change,” Buke said.
“How about abandoning the ship like Raila did, after the credibility of the unwanted is strong enough to be a basis for the formation of another party?”
Buke, who is among the co-founders of the Orange party, also termed the ‘hurried’ installation of Oburu as part of the grand scheme to ring-fence the outfit from the perceived rebels.
Saboti MP Caleb Amisi has termed the push to commit the party to Ruto’s 2027 bid a serious betrayal of the fallen opposition leader.
Amisi warned such leaders will find it difficult to win their seats as the electorate is watching their moves.
“Those who have benefited the most from Baba when he could talk and walk are showing Baba the middle finger when he is dead,” Amisi stated.
“All of them will go home in the 2027 elections. Ruto will not be there to save them.”
On September 22, Raila in what became his last public political activity warned members of his ODM party against committing the party to Ruto’s 207 re-election.
According to the late former Prime Minister, the decision had not been reached by any party organ.
"Don't commit the party to some things that have not been discussed. Who told you ODM will not have a candidate in 2027?" he posed.
He spoke during a meeting with ODM members of the National Assembly at Argyl hotel along Mombasa Road.
INSTANT ANALYSIS
Monday’s crisis meeting marks a defining moment for ODM, a test of whether the party can survive beyond its founder’s shadow or crumble under the weight of the ambitions of its wrangling leaders.
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