Rifts are widening in the ODM party as leaders differ over support for the broad-based government and 2027 plans.
The top
leadership of the Orange party are engaged in a war of words, threatening the
existence of the 20-year-old outfit.
The crux of
the differences is whether ODM leaders can criticise the government
after forming the broad-based government and 2027 succession ambitions.
Some fear that the party could lose its identity in case it forms a coalition with Kenya Kwanza ahead of the 2027 polls.
Siaya governor James Orengo, his Homa Bay counterpart Gladys Wanga and ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna are some of the top leaders that have clashed recently.
Orengo, a
high-ranking ODM stalwart has fired a warning to the party luminaries that the
broad-based government must never be allowed to swallow the ODM identity.
The governor says ODM leaders in government must not be compromised to ignore their party or stifle its voice for justice.
“I want to tell our people that, you know we have an identity and if we lose, our identity for any quick victories, we are going to pay for it in future,’’ warned Orengo at a burial in Siaya last week.
“Lose of our identity should never arise, and if you make compromises, they must be justifiable before God and Justice.”
Orengo insists that ODM’s working with the government must not compromise on the ideals that the party has stood for for many years.
In a blistering reaction, Wanga who is also the ODM national chairperson Glady Wanga warned leaders against attacking President William Ruto’s government where some party “experts are serving”.
She called those asking ODM to criticise the government as ''enemies who are friends with shareholders''.
"It is either you are with us or with the shareholders,'' Wanga said.
She said ODM would be contradicting itself should the party oppose President Ruto's government.
"As a party, we must also recognize that our people are in government. We cannot open a war against them. Otherwise, we will be a party of contradiction," she said at a funeral in Homa Bay.
"We are not a merger but a standalone party. When your child is inside a house, do you burn it? You cannot burn it with your child in there. It will be your loss."
ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna is among party members who have accused their colleagues in government of failing to criticise Kenya Kwanza when it goes wrong.
Speaking on Sunday during a Church Service, Sifuna stated that some members have forgotten what the party stands for.
“There are
people in the ODM party who have forgotten where the party came from and what
it stands for. Others are telling me that they are now tired of speaking for
Kenyans, they are saying they were not born to stay in the opposition. They are
saying they are tired of fighting for the rights of Kenyans,” Sifuna stated.
“I want to tell them that I will continue standing for the truth if something is not going on well, It is bad and we shall speak it however it is. Those who feel like they are tired of fighting for Kenyans and standing for the truth should just leave ODM.”
