Raila congratulates newly appointed ODM officials

ODM leader Raila Odinga has congratulated newly appointed party officials picked Friday by the Central Management Committee.

Raila chaired the meeting in his capacity as party leader.

The party's highest decision-making body unveiled the new leadership lineup to fill vacant positions following the appointment to Cabinet of Hassan Joho, Wycliffe Oparanya and John Mbadi.

President William Ruto appointed Mbadi the CS for National Treasury, Joho, CS for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs and Oparanya the Cooperatives and MSMEs Cabinet Secretary.

Joho and Oparanya are the immediate former deputy party leaders while Mbadi was the national chairman.

The party settled on governors Simba Arati and Abdulswamad Nassir and Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi as the new deputy party leaders.

The Central Management Committee also said it had settled on Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga to replace Mbadi as the national chairman.

The party also retained Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna as secretary general and the party spokesperson.

In a statement on X, Raila congratulated the new officials proposed by the party.

"Congratulations to our proposed new officials," Raila said.

Sifuna said the Central Committee proposed three names for deputy party leader and further made several other appointments.

Rarieda MP Otiende Amolo and his Turkana South counterpart John Ariko were named vice chairmen.

Kajiado East MP Kakuta Maimai was selected secretary for special programmes and social welfare, Rahab Robi (Migori CEC) secretary of publicity and information, Rosa Buyu (Kisumu West MP) secretary for political affairs and Ruth Odinga (Kisumu Woman Rep) deputy organising secretary.

“These vacancies have attracted immense interest from across our membership. We wish to thank all those who offered themselves to serve acknowledging that many of them have already been of great service to the party,” Sifuna said in a statement.

He said whereas not all party members can be leaders at the same time, he encouraged those who missed out of leadership slots that there will always be space for them to contribute to the party.

“We will be making a recommendation to the National Executive Council and the National Governing Council to make the necessary changes to our constitution to reflect this,” he said.