There is growing concern that ODM faces a bleak future without Raila Odinga who is busy as the Africa Union’s new infrastructure boss.
The leadership vacuum is allowing squabbles to fester but calling for ODM party elections now could further widen rifts that would be difficult to heal ahead of the 2022 general election.
“Raila is unlikely to call for elections now. Watch him closely and the big delegations he receives, especially from Mount Kenya. He may craft a new political machine that would bring on board those who ordinarily would be reluctant to join ODM,” a party source told the Star.
The infighting among the ODM’s top leadership hinges on their clashing 2022 ambitions.
For months, ODM Chairman and National Assembly Minority leader John Mbadi has been battling with Secretary General Edwin Sifuna yet these two officials were expected to steer the party in Raila’s absence.
Mbadi’s decision to starve the NASA secretariat of MPs’ contribution and channel all the funding to ODM has made matters worse.
NASA CEO Norman Magaya last week dashed to the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal but then withdrew his complaint under unclear circumstances.
The struggle for party tickets in 2022 is behind protracted and ugly county assembly squabbles.
Signs of trouble between Mbadi and Sifuna first played out when they publicly contradicted each other over leadership wrangles rocking the Homa Bay and Nairobi County Assemblies.
Mbadi wants to stand for Homa Bay Governor in 2022.
Some MCAs supporting Mbadi’s gubernatorial bid defied Sifuna’s directive in that there should be no change of leadership in the assembly. They want to replace the Speaker and the Majority leader causing a stalemate in assembly business. Mbadi denies that he is allied to those MCAs.
The Homa Bay assembly leadership, including Speaker Elizabeth Ayoo, is allied to Homa Bay Women Representative Gladys Wanga who also wants to succeed the present Governor Cyprian Awiti.
In early November Mbadi and Sifuna clashed over who has the power to trigger assembly leadership changes in Nairobi County.
Sifuna insisted that he is the “spokesperson, authorised principal officer and the person mandated by the constitution of the party to issue correspondence on behalf of the party”.
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“You are directed to disregard any communication [Mbadi’s] to the contrary. No changes have been made to the minority side leadership by the party or any of its organs,” Sifuna wrote to the Nairobi assembly speaker.
Mbadi retorted that his decisions as ODM chairman cannot be overruled by the secretary general.
“According to the constitution of our party, the chairman’s decision can only be overruled by the party leader or his two deputies and not any other person or a party organ like NEC, central committee and or NDC,” Mbadi told a press conference.
Sifuna denied that there was any conflict within the party or with Mbadi.
“My job is going on well. I don’t have a problem with the chairman. The chairman has no problem with me. I have not faced any hardship and there is nobody who has blocked me from doing my work,” Sifuna said, responding to claims that his grassroots outreach was being sabotaged.
“Mimi nilipewa ile bunduki iko na risasi na mimi naifyatua (I was given a loaded gun and I am firing.) On the day there is a problem I will tell you. I am not a coward,” he told the Star yesterday.
Sifuna has been touring ODM branches countrywide in the last few months to rejuvenate grassroots support.
“Sifuna has thick skin, he is stubborn and he doesn’t take prisoners,” a party source said.
Former Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba resigned in a huff as ODM secretary general before the 2017 election and Raila had to then work hard to consolidate the Luhya vote. If Sifuna left now, Raila would again have a difficult task in western Kenya.
Yesterday ODM treasurer Timothy Bosire said that divergent opinions among leaders must not be construed as a sign of fallout.
“I can’t help perceptions but there are no factions in ODM. Period. The word faction is alien in our party,” Bosire told the Star
“You can’t gag the secretary general and the chairman from speaking their minds,” he said.
“Some people may want to inject foreign ideas to scuttle a national party that is well grounded with impeccable democratic principles,” he said.
He admitted that grassroots party politics, especially from Homa Bay, might be having a negative effect at the national office in Nairobi.
Wanga thinks that gubernatorial ambitions are behind the assembly tussles in Homa Bay.
She claimed that the current assembly standoff has been engineered by Governor Cyprian Awiti and his supporters to frustrate Speaker Elizabeth Ayoo.
“The executive and people like Mbadi want to block the speaker from acting as governor in case of a by-election. That is the truth,” she told the Star yesterday.
Mbadi fired back at Wanga claiming that the Homa Bay assembly impasse was the fault of Ayoo whom lacks “leadership and management skills.”
“It is unfortunate that people can create a problem for themselves and then turn around and start accusing me. This is a very petty issue. I am too senior to start exchanging with her [Wanga],” said Mbadi yesterday.
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Asked if he was fighting with Wanga over the ODM ticket for Homa Bay Governor in 2022, Mbadi said, “For now I am happy with my Minority leadership position. If I have an interest to be governor, that is about 2022 and not now.”
“These fights may appear personalised, such as between Mbadi and Sifuna at the national level or Mbadi and Wanga in Homa Bay. But behind them is intense jockeying by those plotting to control the ODM vote in the anticipated post-Raila era,” said John Onyando, a former NASA communication official who has written a scathing book about Raila’s 2017 presidential campaign.
Most of Raila’s lieutenants, especially in Nyanza, are angling to be governors in 2022.
In Siaya, Senate Minority leader James Orengo and ODM Secretary of Political Affairs Opiyo Wandayi both want to succeed Cornel Rasanga as governor.
In Kisumu, Senator Fred Outa is plotting to oust Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o.
In Migori Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, Senator Ochilo Ayacko and Uriri MP Mark Nyamita are all allegedly eying the gubernatorial seat.
“Some people are positioning themselves to use Raila and selfishly get what they want,” an ODM insider lamented.
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