When you see ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna cheering his party leader Raila Odinga and savagely fending off their political opponents, know it is a job he trained for since childhood.
He led the cheering squad of the rugby team at Musingu Boys High School for four years.
Though not talented in the sport, he proudly says, his cheering skills earned him trips out of the school for sporting outings.
And if you wanted to get some fun during school sporting season but you were not a player, Sifuna was your man to get you into the list.
When he finished high school and came to the University of Nairobi to pursue law studies, the cheering talent could not let him rest easy. He was among the thousands of jubilant Narc supporters waving hands and singing ‘Yote ya wezekana bila Moi’ at Uhuru Park in 2002.
It is the rally where the ODM leader declared his endorsement for former President Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki went on to win the presidential vote with 67 per cent against his rival and successor Uhuru Kenyatta of Kanu.
But behind the exuberant posture of the 39-year-old father of one little girl lies a determined personality who has a stand and opinion on everything. It is not easy to get him off his focus because, as he says, he takes time before taking a stand.
The secretary-general welcomed the Star to his home for a conversation on his life, his relationship with his party boss Raila Odinga and his political ambitions in the new year.
“You can be sure I have a stand on anything, especially that which is dear to me. I don’t sit on the fence or listen to the ground, as some alleged leaders like to say,” Sifuna said.
I hear people talking about hustling as though some of us have not been there
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Before rising to national fame, Sifuna had his fair share of life struggles.
For example, he had to hawk socks and mitumba in the local market in his Bungoma backyard, man a kiosk for his mother and unsuccessfully explore a business venture of getting millet from Uganda through panya routes.
“I hear people talking about hustling as though some of us have not been there,” he says.
Sifuna earned his law degree in 2006. The sector had undergone policy changes at the time, including the introduction of a requirement to have lawyers admitted to the bar after getting a diploma from the Kenya School of Law. Then the struggle for raising the needed school fees started.
“There was no such policy in the years past. But when we just graduated, the policy came in. Our parents were so frustrated because in their minds, they were done with paying our fees. It was really problematic,” he said.
Life would then plunge him into doing small businesses to raise the fees.
“I operated a video games shop to raise my fees and upkeep myself,” he said. When he graduated, it took him another 18 months to land his first job as a legal officer with a loaf-making company.
After some time, he got a job with Magnate Ventures, his big break in life, and he never looked back.
Before becoming the leading official of the Orange party, the firebrand politician got introduced to the country through the Law Society of Kenya. He served in the society’s 2016-18 council and while there, his instinct of causing good trouble was on show.
At one point while serving in the council, he was the leader of a hardline rebel group called ‘Okoa LSK movement’, which demanded a raft of reforms at the lawyers’ lobby. The drama and the stand-offs brought him to the media’s attention.
But Sifuna’s ‘hard-lining’ and ‘resisting’ stance did not come from the blues. He hails from a deeply political family in Bungoma, with his uncle Lawrence Sifuna, a long-serving MP, being a household name in the county.
The senior Sifuna was among the 'Seven Bearded Sisters' who stood up to the former President Daniel Moi administration’s excesses. The others were Siaya Senator James Orengo and former legislators Abuya Abuya, Onyango Midika, Mwashengu wa Mwachofi, Chibule wa Tsuma and Koigi wa Wamwere.
So politics seemingly flows in the younger Sifuna's blood.
ODM COUP
The secretary general got his political break when he met Raila after the 2013 elections and all the legal fights surrounding it had died down. The meeting was organised by Raila aide Silas Jakakimba.
“Silas is a very good friend of mine. It is him who organised for me to meet Baba [Raila] at Capitol Hill after we had lost the 2013 battle. If you want to meet Baba, look for him after elections, when most of these hangers-on looking for seats have got what they wanted and do not hover around him anymore,” he said.
All the while, he was writing newspaper columns, including in this paper, making his opinions and reservations on how ODM was being run, known.
In one of the articles, he had penned harsh criticism of the party’s management style, offering what he viewed as alternatives. Now Kisumu Governor Anyang’o Nyong’o — then the secretary general of the party —noted him and called him for lunch.
“Nyong’o told me that, ‘You know your thinking and energy is what we need for the party at this time.’ He is a heavy man,” he said.
Nyong’o, who at the time served as Kisumu Senator, would recruit the young Sifuna into a strategic think tank that was plotting Raila’s new political strategy after the 2013 setback.
“In that think tank, we were with John Githongo, David Ndii, Prof Adams Oloo, Prof Nyong’o, among others. I was the youngest there,” he said.
“I attended the first meeting in Raila’s home and that was the first time I visited his house. In those meetings, you just take notes because those names are heavyweights.”
In the meantime, he continued penning his articles and taking a keen interest on how the party was being run.
At some point when former Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba was the secretary general, Sifuna organised some youths and stormed Orange House, went into the SG’s office and declared himself the new secretary general.
“It was clear Ababu was in bed with our opponents and working against the interests of our party leader. Everybody feared him and would not confront him,” he said.
“In every meeting, he would come and pull a chair besides the party leader, and no one raised the obvious concerns. But we figured, Raila would not agree to an illegality or something not right, so we decided to proceed and make our position known.”
I became SG in very difficult times. Before handshake, it was easy to speak on behalf of ODM because we always opposed, rejected, dismissed, etc. Now I have to take cognisance of the handshake, and it was tough settling in
Fast-forward to 2018, Sifuna was appointed the new party secretary-general and his politics took a new trajectory.
“I was attending court in Mombasa on the election petition case against Governor Joho,” he said.
“I got a call that the party’s top organ had settled on me as the new SG. I said, ‘Whatever I’m asked to do for the party, I’m ready.”
But he laments that he became the party spokesman in very unfamiliar times because of the handshake.
“I became SG in very difficult times. Before handshake, it was easy to speak on behalf of ODM because we always opposed, rejected, dismissed, etc. Now I have to take cognisance of the handshake, and it was tough settling in.”
Sifuna is credited with streamlining the operation of the ODM secretariat, ensuring discipline among staff and being an ardent defender of the party. The most memorable fight he staged for the party was when the then Nasa parties demanded a share of the political parties’ funds from ODM.
“I told them off and they know that when it comes to this party, I will do all in the law to defend it. I know I have stepped on many toes and made many enemies in the line of my work, but it's my job,” he said.
“The ODM constitution requires me to defend the party against any propaganda by opponents. So I have no apologies.”
SECOND STAB AT SENATE
Sifuna has declared a second run for Nairobi’s senatorial seat in the 2022 polls. He had a first stab at the seat but lost to Johnson Sakaja, but is pleased with his performance.
“I always tell people that I’m the first Luhya in history to garner more than 700,000 votes. So I should be a Luhya kingpin or a co-principal of some sort,” he said with loud laughter.
In the run-up to that election, he said, he had retreated back to his Khanduyi backyard to battle it out for the ODM ticket for a parliamentary seat. He did not succeed.
“So I then received a call from the party, calling me to come for the ticket and contest for Nairobi Senate. When I came, I found a panel consisting of Winnie Odinga, Jimmy Wanjigi, Oduor Ong’wen and Adams Oloo to convince me to run.
“They told me that you could be worried about the ticket for Nairobi, Winnie said that’s why I’m here. About campaign money, Wanjigi said that’s why I’m here. For campaign team and strategy, Oloo and Ong’wen said, that’s why we are here.”
All those were just words. Nothing he was promised he received, he said.
“I had to stage a fight for the ticket up to the Court of Appeal against a fellow called Chapia, and the court ruled six weeks to the elections,” he said.
“For Wanjigi, he told me to draw a budget and together with my team, we came up with a budget of Sh54 million. The businessman told me to present the budget at his office in ABC place and I never heard back from him. In the meantime, he only gave me Sh100,000 for fuel.
“So, when I hear people talk about Wanjigi as the tycoon funding Baba, I laugh hard.
“I only received Sh1.7 million from Evans Kidero as a campaign contribution, and I used over Sh2 million of my own money in the trail.”
With six weeks to the election, he says, his team staged a thrilling campaign that he is proud of, and he looks forward to replicating it in the 2022 polls.
To Nairobian, he says as your senator, you can expect him to “have a stand, not play safe on any matter and speak up on matters critical to you”.
“I won’t be a senator who sits on the fence even on a serious matter as impeachment of the county governor. How do you become neutral on such a matter?” he said, in an apparent swipe at the current Senator Sakaja.
Sifuna aims to not only ride on the party's ticket to the Senate and be the majority leader there but also remain the party spokesman indefinitely.