ODM acting Party leader Oburu Odinga./FILEA top organ of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) will hold a crucial meeting next week to ratify the appointment of Oburu Oginga as party leader.
The National Governing Council (NGC) will hold a special sitting in Mombasa next Thursday ahead of the party’s 20th anniversary celebrations.
Members of the NGC have been invited to arrive early in Mombasa to attend the convention whose agenda is indicated as ‘ratify appointments to party positions.’
“We will be in Mombasa on the evening of Thursday, November 13, 2025, to ratify the appointment of party officials, who include Dr. Oburu as our substantive leader,” Makadara MP George Aladwa, who is the Nairobi County Branch Chairman, said.
The Siaya Senator was named as the acting party leader on October 16, 2025, by the National Executive Council (NEC), just a day after the demise of his brother in India.
Last week, the party's Central Management Committee met in Nairobi and unanimously resolved to endorse his appointment.
“This being the first meeting of the committee since the passing of the party leader, the top party organ endorses Hon. Dr Oburu Oginga as the new party leader and urges the party rank and file to accord him all the necessary support and cooperation to enable him to guide the party through this difficult time,” Secretary General Edwin Sifuna said after the CMC’s meeting.
Other officials who are in line to be confirmed include the three deputy party leaders, who include Vihiga Senator Godffrey Osotsi and governors Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir (Mombasa) and Simba Arati (Kisii).
Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga will also be confirmed as the substantive party chairman. She replaced John Mbadi, who was appointed Treasury Cabinet Secretary in August last year, and the broad-based arrangement.
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir and Kisii Governor Simba Arati replaced former Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and former Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya, who also joined the cabinet, while the ODM Central Management Committee expanded the positions of deputy party leaders to three and named Osotsi as the third deputy.
The changes, according to the ODM party constitution and political parties act, require a superior organ of either the NGC or National Delegates Convention (NDC) to ratify them for them to be recognised as substantive.
The NGC has a membership of more than 450 officials, who include all 290 branch (constituency) chairpersons, all 47 county chairpersons, 43 members of the NEC, and 20 members of the executive committee each from both the youth and women leagues.
All members of parliament (both Senate and National) and all Members of County Assembly (MCAs) elected on the ODM party also form part of the NGC.
The ODM@20 fete was slated originally for Mombasa last month but was postponed to this month due to Raila’s ill health. After his death, the party resolved to proceed with the event, which now will be used to celebrate his legacy as a political supremo, among others.
ODM had invited its founder members to the event. Other than Raila and Joe Nyagah, who have since died, most of its founder members are alive. They include President William Ruto, retired President Uhuru Kenyatta, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, and ex-Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala, among others.
Although Raila had invited the luminaries, Dr. Oburu was said to be planning to send new invites to the event that kicks off next weekend from the 14th to the 16th.
ODM was founded in 2005 following the opposition victory in the doomed referendum that was supported by former President Mwai Kibaki and his allies. The No team with a symbol of orange beat the Yes team with a Banana symbol in November 2005.
The victorious No team was also inspired by events dubbed the Orange Revolution that had taken place in Kiev, Ukraine, the previous year, from November 2004 to January 2005, which succeeded in preventing Russian-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovych from stealing the Ukrainian presidency and made possible the election of his reformist rival, Viktor Yushchenko.
