Siaya Governor James Orengo says he ahs no personal beef with his Senator Dr. Oburu Oginga, insisting he only quietened his appointment as a party leader.

According to Orengo, Dr. Oburu was irregularly named as replacement of his late brother Raila Odinga to the office of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader.

The Governor said ODM violated its own constitution to hurriedly install Oburu who was not holding any top position in the National Executive Council (NEC) back then, moments after Raila’s death on October 15, last year.

Appearing at the JK Live on Citizen TV last night, Orengo claimed that the ODM procedures were hijacked and directed by outsiders who used senior party officials to appoint Dr. Oburu instead of naming of the three deputy party leaders to take over in acting capacity awaiting elections.

“I don’t have beef with Oburu Oginga, it is not a personal thing. What we are saying is that ODM must live true to its founding principles and it also must live by the Constitution that says when a death occurs of a party leader, one of the three deputy party leaders would become the interim party leader until the elections are held. That did not happen,” he said.

Orengo explained that following the alleged irregular changes that he doesn’t agree with, he decided to also declared himself as the people’s ODM party leader under the separate faction of the party.

“But because we cannot have a vacuum, I am the de facto party leader of ODM, and we have a movement within ODM called Linda Mwananchi. I did not just declare, everywhere we went in those mega rallies, people were saying I was the one to lead the party out of this confusion and make ODM be what it should be," the veteran politician said.

He added; "It is not illegal to declare myself the leader of ODM because we are in very extraordinary circumstances. Raila dies, and a cabal in State House chooses who the next leader of ODM is, a cabal that is presided over by a party that does not belong to ODM. ODM cannot continue being leaderless.”

Orengo said the changes in ODM were orchestrated by State House and enabled by four senior members of NEC who include three of his governor colleagues Simba Arati (Kisii) and Abdulswamad Sharrif Nassir (Mombasa) as well as Gladys Wanga (Homabay).

"The willing sellers are a cabal of ODM officials. When they were making changes to ODM leadership when Raila’s body was still in India, in that meeting there was Gladys Wanga, Junet Mohamed, Governor Arati and Governor Nassir from Mombasa. I can predict that they couldn’t be sitting with a stranger, Ruto, making decisions of the party if he has not bought into the party," Orengo stated.