ODM crowd in Busia roars support for Sifuna led team, rejects Oburu

Busia Stadium erupted into defiance on Sunday as thousands of ODM supporters roared approval when party Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna and Embakasi East MP Babu Owino issued a blunt political dare: if ODM chooses expulsion over internal democracy, they are ready to return to the electorate and seek a fresh mandate.

The rally, dubbed “ODM Linda Wananchi,” drew thousands from across western Kenya and beyond. What began as a grassroots mobilisation quickly turned into a forceful rebuke of attempts to push ODM into a pre-election arrangement with President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

Repeatedly, speakers were interrupted by chants demanding respect for dissenting views within ODM and an end to intimidation of leaders opposed to cooperation with the government.

“We are not scared of threats,” Babu Owino told the crowd. “If ODM is reduced to a party of intimidation and blackmail, then we are ready to go back to wananchi and ask for a fresh mandate. ODM belongs to the people, not to brokers of power.”

The declaration drew deafening cheers, capturing the mood of a rally that laid bare the deepest internal rupture ODM has faced since its formation.

Among the leaders in attendance were Siaya Governor James Orengo, Kisii Senator Richard Onyancha, ODM Deputy Party Leader Godfrey Osotsi, Caroli Omondi, and several elected leaders from western Kenya, Nyanza, Kitui and Trans Nzoia counties.

The leaders openly challenged a rival ODM faction associated with Dr Oburu Oginga, Raila Odinga’s elder brother, accusing it of pushing the party towards a political arrangement with UDA that lacks ideological grounding and grassroots legitimacy.

The rally went ahead despite early rumours that it would be blocked. On Friday, individuals wearing ODM T-shirts were seen warning that the meeting would not take place, while police vehicles patrolled the area. However, the gathering proceeded peacefully, with officers keeping their distance as the crowd filled the stadium.

James Orengo warned that ODM would not be broken, swallowed or traded for political convenience. “We are ODM,” Orengo said. “No one will break ODM. No one will sell ODM. Any decision to engage with other parties must come from ODM supporters – the wananchi.”

Orengo accused UDA and President Ruto of responsibility for the killing hundreds of young people during June 2024 and 2025b protests, saying ODM would not enter into any dialogue or agreement until families of those killed are fully compensated.

“We do not want positions,” he said. “We want justice. Raila Odinga was a pro-people leader, and as ODM, we will not abandon families who lost their loved ones. ODM must form the next government, and those trying to sell the party will face the wrath of grassroots supporters.”

Throughout the rally, speakers were careful but firm in drawing a distinction between Raila Odinga’s political legacy and what they described as its distortion by party elites seeking proximity to State power.

They insisted that they, not the faction advocating for a pact with UDA, represent the true ideological lineage of Raila Odinga: resistance to authoritarianism, defence of constitutionalism, and loyalty to wananchi rather than the ruling class.

They said ODM was founded as a movement of struggle, not a conveyor belt into government, and urged wananchi to remain vigilant and reject leaders using Raila Odinga’s name to silence debate, warning that such actions amount to a betrayal of his legacy.

By framing the dispute as one of values rather than strategy, the Busia rally placed the broad-based government proponents on the defensive and raised questions about whether ODM can retain its reformist identity while aligning with a government it has consistently opposed.

Orengo also rejected suggestions that ODM should abandon the 2027 presidential race in favour of early political accommodation.

“To surrender the presidential contest is to surrender the future,” he said. “A party that exists only to negotiate positions for individuals abandons its people.”

His remarks directly challenged the part leader Oburu Oginga’s recent arguments that ODM was not interested in both the presidency and deputy president positions. In Busia, such reasoning was dismissed as resignation, not realism.

ODM Deputy Party Leader Godfrey Osotsi sharpened the internal critique, declaring that the leaders in Busia represented the “true ODM” and accusing rival factions of being compromised.

“There is a fake ODM that has been bought by President Ruto and funded with big tents,” Osotsi said. “We have capable leaders within this party. Claims that ODM cannot produce both a presidential and deputy presidential candidate are false.”

Osotsi said some ODM leaders had been intimidated into silence, but insisted that Raila Odinga never joined a broad-based government.

“He only agreed to a 10-point agenda,” Osotsi said. “That agenda has a deadline. March 7 is the cut-off for its implementation, and that is the only mandate Baba left us to pursue.”

The rally’s defiance crystallised around a clear message: expulsion is not a threat. Sifuna warned that attempts to enforce conformity through fear would backfire.

“You cannot discipline people into believing what they do not believe,” Sifuna said. “ODM’s strength has always been its people.”

He added that leaders were being threatened for speaking about the struggles facing ordinary Kenyans. “If you have a problem with me, ask the people first whether they want me,” Sifuna said. “Raila Odinga never raised cowards. He taught us to focus and defend wananchi.”

Sifuna clarified that the 10-point agenda signed between President Ruto and Raila Odinga was not a coalition agreement and had no provision for extension.

“They have not implemented it,” he said. “If they cannot honour an agreement signed with Raila Odinga, how will they honour a pre-election pact signed with Oburu Oginga?”

Speakers singled out the ODM wing associated with Dr Oginga as the main driver of the push for a pre-election pact with UDA, accusing it of making decisions through elite consultations rather than party structures.

While Dr Oginga’s allies argue that Raila Odinga’s engagement with President Ruto was meant to stabilise the country, leaders in Busia rejected that interpretation.

“What we are seeing is not dialogue, it is political liquidation,” said Kitutu Chache South Mp Anthony kibagendi. “You cannot negotiate away a party without the consent of its members.”

Kisii Senator Richard Onyancha said any engagement with the government must begin with accountability for lives lost.

“You must first compensate the families of the people who were killed,” Onyancha said. “A government that cannot protect its most vulnerable citizens has no moral authority to govern.”

Babu Owino warned ODM senior leadership, saying dissenting voices would not be intimidated.

“We are not timid. We are not fools. We are not children,” he said. “If you force us out of the party, we are ready to go back to the people.”

He cited the rising cost of living, youth unemployment and economic hardship as evidence that the government has failed.

The leaders stopped short of announcing a split, but made it clear that silence and submission are no longer options. The struggle over ODM’s identity, between resistance and accommodation, grassroots power and elite bargaining, has now moved into the open.