Orengo Names 4 ODM Leaders Who ‘Sold’ Party to Ruto While Raila’s Body Was Still in India
Governor James Orengo of Siaya has accused State House of masterminding the recent changes within ODM, pointing the finger at four senior members of the party’s National Executive Council who he says opened the door for the takeover. In his telling, these insiders handed President William Ruto an opportunity to effectively purchase the party’s loyalty.
Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV’s JKLive, Orengo, who aligns with the Linda Mwananchi faction, took direct aim at Linda Ground officials, accusing them of making critical party decisions only after seeking the head of state’s approval, thus driving tensions within ODM to a breaking point.
He named ODM Chairperson Gladys Wanga, Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, and Governors Simba Arati and Abdulswamad Nassir as the officials at the center of the controversy, accusing them of convening a meeting to reorganize the party’s leadership while Raila Odinga’s body still lay in India.
“The willing sellers are a cabal of ODM officials. When they were making changes to ODM leadership when Raila’s body was still in India, in that meeting there was Gladys Wanga, Junet Mohamed, Governor Arati, and Governor Nassir from Mombasa. I can predict that they couldn’t be sitting with a stranger, Ruto, making decisions of the party if he has not bought into the party,” Orengo stated.
The governor went further, directly accusing President Ruto of not only backing but actively bankrolling ODM’s operations, citing meetings held at State House and other venues associated with the president as evidence.
“President Ruto is the willing buyer. It is not a secret. That is how ODM can hold meetings in State House and President Ruto presides. Also in his private residence in Kilgoris, and he is the one funding the party. Despite the fact the party is owed Ksh.12 billion by the government, he is funding even the meeting held in Mombasa,” he said.
Why Orengo Declared Himself ODM Leader
Orengo also trained his sights on the appointment of ODM leader Oburu Oginga, dismissing it as irregular and a violation of the party’s own constitution. He argued that the party rushed to install Oburu, who held no senior position in the National Executive Council at the time, in the immediate aftermath of Raila Odinga’s death on October 15 last year, bypassing the procedures that should have governed the succession.
The governor charged that outsiders hijacked the process and used senior party officials to push through Oburu’s appointment, sidelining the three deputy party leaders who, under the ODM constitution, should have stepped in on an acting basis pending fresh elections.
“I don’t have beef with Oburu Oginga; it is not a personal thing. What we are saying is that ODM must live true to its founding principles, and it also must live by the constitution that says when a death occurs of a party leader, one of the three deputy party leaders will become the interim party leader until the elections are held. That did not happen,” he said.
Orengo went on to explain that the contested changes pushed him to declare himself the people’s ODM party leader under the Linda Mwananchi faction.
“But because we cannot have a vacuum, I am the de facto party leader of ODM, and we have a movement within ODM called Linda Mwananchi. I did not just declare; everywhere we went in those mega rallies, people were saying I was the one to lead the party out of this confusion and make ODM be what it should be,” Orengo said.
He stood firmly behind the legitimacy of his self-declaration, framing it as a necessary response to an extraordinary crisis.
“It is not illegal to declare myself the leader of ODM because we are in very extraordinary circumstances. Raila dies, and a cabal in State House chooses who the next leader of ODM is, a cabal that is presided over by a party that does not belong to ODM. ODM cannot continue being leaderless,” he added.
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