- While some ODM leaders prefer a caretaker committee, others have fronted names of the likely successors.
- Raila is expected to formally step down as ODM leaders during a delegates meeting next month.
Image: ODM/X
A major succession battle has rocked the ODM party even as the Central Management Committee (CMC) meets on Wednesday to resolve the puzzle of who will succeed Raila Odinga.
The CMC sits to firm up Raila’s succession at a time when leaders are scrambling to take over his position as the ODM party leader.
The management committee is the party’s crucial decision-making organ comprising a lean team of party stalwarts who hold sway in the leadership and management of the party.
It has emerged that various leaders are fighting to assume Raila’s role with at least five politicians in the pole position to succeed Odinga at the helm of ODM.
Governors Simba Arati (Kisii), James Orengo (Siaya), Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay), Anyang’ Nyong’o and ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna are said to be battling to succeed Raila.
Some ODM linchpins prefer a caretaker Committee to take charge of the party for the next five months awaiting the outcome of the African Union Commission chairperson elections slated for February 2025.
Raila, who is one of the frontrunners of the AUC post, is planning to step down as the ODM leader to concentrate on the continental campaigns ahead of the poll.
Insiders say the ODM leader will start taking a back seat in the management of ODM from this week, but will formally quit the position next month.
“The Central Management Committee of ODM will meet on Wednesday and Raila is expected to pick a replacement ahead of his exit next month," a source aware of the ODM plans said.
However, Raila’s imminent exit from the party has triggered vicious succession wars in ODM with a section of party bigwigs competing for the position.
The battle has escalated such that the matter was dropped from a meeting of the ODM county chairpersons held in Nairobi on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa attributed the decision by the branch chairperson to drop the succession matter to the sensitivity of the issue.
“We have resolved that since Baba is still the party leader, a conversation around his succession is premature because we have structures of dealing with the appointment of an acting party leader," Barasa said.
There are reports that Wednesday’s meeting of the CMC would clear the road for an upcoming National Delegates Convention next month where Raila will formally step down.
It will be during the NDC that Raila will hand over the ODM mantle to the acting party leader who will be picked during Wednesday’s CMC meeting in Nairobi.
ODM National Treasurer Timothy Bosire, who is a member of the CMC, said that ODM does not lack capable leaders to steer the party in Raila’s absence.
“Our leadership structures as a party are strong, comprehensive, and self-regulating such that in the absence of Raila, all is well," Bosire said.
Raila’s imminent exit from the local scene has triggered jostling within the ODM party with politicians scrambling to take over his larger-than-life position.
Last month, he picked Governors Arati(Kisii) Abdulswamad Nassir (Mombasa) and Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi as deputy party leaders and unveiled an expanded ODM leadership.
The move was informed by the exit of his former deputies Hassan Joho and Wycliffe Oparanya who took up Cabinet positions in President William Ruto’s government.
Leaders within ODM are backing various heavyweights to succeed Raila, with Makadara MP George Aladwa who is the party’s Nairobi branch chairperson backing Orengo.
“Our decision as a county is that Governor Orengo should be appointed to the post," Aladwa said.
Saboti MP Caleb Amisi lifted the lid on the anxiety in the ODM party over Raila’s exit, fronting Sifuna to take over from Raila.
“It is my considered view that Edwin Sifuna should serve as party leader to hold brief for Baba as he campaigns for the coveted continental post," Amisi said.
Amisi also said Siaya Governor James Orengo should take charge as the chairperson of the Council of Elders to offer advisory counsel to the ODM leadership in Raila’s absence.
“The rejuvenation of Africa's biggest democratic party lies in the freshness, energy, charisma, enthusiasm and dedication of its youthful supporters," Amisi said.
This year, the ODM National Executive Council approved the incorporation of two organs in the party’s Constitution as part of Raila’s efforts to steady the outfit and protect it from mischief.
Some women politicians are coalescing around Wanga, who was recently elevated to be the ODM national chairperson to replace National Treasury CS.