The Orange Democratic Movement is tearing itself apart. What began as a celebration of the party’s 20-year journey at the Mama Ngina Waterfront in Mombasa quickly mutated into a fierce, emotional, and unprecedented confrontation — the first major test of ODM without Raila Odinga. In the month since his death, the center that held Kenya’s largest opposition party together has collapsed, revealing deep fractures, buried resentments, and irreconcilable visions for the future.
It all unfolded in real time as senior leaders took the stage, each determined to claim ownership of Raila’s legacy. Tensions simmered from the moment the gathering began, and by the time the speeches got underway, the event had transformed into a political battlefield where nothing — not loyalty, not history, not even grief — was off-limits.
At the heart of the unfolding drama was the widening gulf between leaders eager to extend the broad-based arrangement Raila left behind and those who insist that ODM must break free and reclaim its independence. Dr Oburu Oginga, stepping firmly into his brother’s shoes, projected himself as the natural custodian of Odinga’s legacy, insisting he would steer ODM exactly as Raila did. His calm tone disguised the force of his message. He reminded the party of his lifelong loyalty to Raila and dismissed critics with veiled swipes, especially toward Siaya Senator James Orengo, whom he accused — without naming — of previously betraying Raila’s trust.
But Oburu’s confidence met a formidable challenge from a group of leaders unwilling to be swept aside. Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna, always vocal but now visibly wounded by concerns of ideological drift, struck a defiant tone. He cautioned that in celebrating ODM’s founders, the party risked abandoning the values Raila built with sweat, scars, and sacrifice — values of human rights, social justice, and unflinching independence. Sifuna pledged loyalty to Oginga but made it unmistakably clear that the soul of ODM was not up for negotiation.
Then came the moment that shifted the entire atmosphere: Winnie Odinga rose to speak. Still grieving, still visibly raw, she pierced the gathering with the sharpest critique the party’s new leadership has faced. She questioned whether those negotiating with the Ruto administration possessed even a fraction of the political dexterity her father wielded. Her message was direct, emotional, and unfiltered — the broad-based government relationship was complicated, she said, and only Raila could manage it. With that, she demanded a National Delegates Convention to hand the decision-making power back to the people. Her words struck like lightning across a crowd already unsettled, energizing loyalists who fear ODM is slowly being swallowed by the very government it once challenged
As if on cue, Joho, Arati, Wanga, Wandayi, Nassir, and Mbadi closed ranks around Dr Oburu Oginga. Joho, table-thumping and unrestrained, lashed out at those whispering about Coast leaders being sidelined. He warned that the sacrifices he made for ODM were not up for erasure and that if anyone attempted to edge them out, they would respond with equal force. Arati followed with an even harder edge, declaring that anyone planning to destroy the party would be destroyed first — a threat that drew gasps and cheers in equal measure. Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir added that anyone hoping to bypass Oburu would have to face him — and then face the people of Kenya.
Orengo, unbothered and unbowed, fired back with a reminder that Ruto needs ODM more than ODM needs Ruto, a line that sliced directly into the legitimacy of the broad-based arrangement. The ideological clash, long whispered behind closed doors, was now openly ripping through the party’s core.
As the political storm raged, another conflict — smaller, but equally symbolic — exploded online. Robert Alai’s attack on Winnie Odinga triggered an instant and furious response from Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo. She accused Alai of chronic disrespect toward women and scolded him for attacking a grieving daughter barely a month after burying her father. Her message was as personal as it was political, declaring that if he wanted a fight, she was ready. She reaffirmed her support for Oburu as the current leader but insisted it was entirely legitimate for younger leaders like Babu Owino to dream of taking the helm someday. To her, the attack on Winnie was not just a political misstep — it was uncouth, uncultured, and deeply insensitive.
While ODM’s internal storms dominated headlines, an even bigger shock arrived from across the Atlantic. The United States indicted a Kenyan linked to a staggering Sh84 billion corruption scheme involving government-funded medical supplies — one of the largest scandals ever tied to a Kenyan national. The timing could not have been worse. As ODM battled for its identity and future, Kenya’s global image took another beating.
By the end of the day, it was painfully clear that the ODM that gathered in Mombasa was not the ODM that Raila left behind. It was fragmented, emotionally charged, and dangerously exposed. The competing factions — one claiming continuity, the other demanding course correction — are no longer whispering their disagreements. They are shouting them into microphones, on stages, and across social media.
ODM has entered a new era: an era without Raila Odinga at the helm, an era in which loyalty is contested, ideology is weaponized, and the future is anything but certain. What once held Kenya’s political opposition together is now the very thing threatening to break it apart.
The question now haunting the party — and the country — is whether ODM will emerge from this fire stronger, or whether it will finally shatter under the weight of its own contradictions.
