Members of ODM Central Committee addressing the press after a meeting in Nairobi on July 29th 2025 where they reaffirmed support for President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza government. [Collins Oduor, Standard]
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has moved to tame a growing rebellion within his party, doubling down on assertions that he supported President William Ruto and the broad-based government they firmed up last March.
In a move seen as aimed at piling pressure on the president, Raila wants Ruto to implement a 10-point memorandum of understanding of cooperation they signed in March.
The Orange Democratic Movement’s Central Management Committee said Tuesday that it wants a technical team set up between the opposition party and the United Democratic Alliance as part of a “political infrastructure to assist with the implementation of the agreement.”
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The committee did not specify actions to be taken if UDA went back on the MoU, with Sifuna saying ODM supports Raila’s decision to work with the ruling administration to “stabilise the country and create an enabling environment for Kenyans to address their concerns through democratic and constitutional means.”
ODM wants the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco) report implemented fully, a target that Dr Ruto is unlikely to achieve. For instance, the document demands an audit of the 2022 electoral process and addressing cost-of-living issues, which have significantly contributed to waves of anti-government protests since 2023.
“Of great concern is the… promotion and protection of the livelihoods of young people, the right to peaceful assembly and protests, the rule of law and constitutionalism, and corruption and wastage of public resources,” Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna said in a statement after the tense meeting in Nairobi, which he described as having featured “frank and open deliberations.”
The committee had cited the lack of a structured implementation framework as slowing progress. The March MoU also demanded compensation for victims of police brutality and an end to opulence, which has been on display in recent months through “empowerment” drives led by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki.
Yesterday’s meeting, which supported Raila’s call for an “intergenerational national conclave”, came amid sharp differences within the party over its association with Ruto. These differences played out this past weekend, with several politicians, some of whom sit on the ODM’s central committee, attacking Sifuna for his opposition to the broad-based government, as expressed in a televised interview days ago.
ODM’s chairperson Gladys Wanga and National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohamed have been the most vocal in supporting Ruto, with Sifuna the most critical voice against the president.
Sifuna had sharply differed with Raila, who, days earlier, had declared ODM would stay in the broad-based government until 2027.
“Right now, there is a lot of confusion. I have told my party leader that there was a time when it was very easy to be the SG of ODM,” the Nairobi senator said about ODM’s support for UDA amid growing cases of rights abuses.
On Saturday, Raila said that while Sifuna had every right to air his views, he would not answer him through “the papers.”
“Sifuna’s comments, like any other member’s, will be discussed in our party organs. That is where we respond and build consensus,” Raila said in Kakamega.
Indeed, such debates featured during Tuesday’s meeting, with reports suggesting that allies of Ruto within ODM’s top organ had tried to corner Sifuna for his remarks, with the Nairobi senator getting the backing of others. The central committee admitted that the divisions also played out in the meeting.
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“While the members arrived here with different viewpoints on many issues within the party and the country, the committee brokered an unbreakable unity of purpose in the party and a single-minded focus on ensuring that ODM continues to be a loyal servant of the people and the country, acting in the best interest of its supporters and the nation and committed to the agenda of national transformation and stability,” added Sifuna.
He also announced the party’s plans to participate in upcoming by-elections, which could feature competition from UDA, as well as strengthening grassroots support in a process of “regeneration, reorganisation and internal strengthening.”
Sifuna also said ODM would push to have allocations to county governments raised to Sh450 billion from the current Sh415 billion.
“The party continues to demand the implementation of the unbundling of devolved functions and requisite and constitutionally sanctioned resources to the counties,” added the ODM secretary general.
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