Sifuna adopts nicer stance after Raila edict but will broad-based deal last?

President William Ruto’s hope of winning support from ODM Leader Raila Odinga’s strongholds for his re-election question in 2027 is now in jeopardy after he backed the party’s Secretary General Edwin Sifuna who has been vocal in his opposition to the broad-based government formed by President William Ruto following the Gen Z revolt last June that shook his hold to power.

During the burial of Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were, Raila declared that Sifuna, who has previously faced a backlash from those who back the arrangement that brought five ODM luminaries into Ruto’s Cabinet and saw several other close allies  appointed as senior advisors, is the only one who speaks for the party.

He, however, asked him to stop his acerbic attacks on the Ruto administration.

“The spokesman of the party is the Secretary General. When Sifuna speaks, he speaks on behalf of the party but then sazingine apana kuwa chungu sana. We have an arrangement with Kenya Kwanza and put it in black and white, a 10-point agenda and want it to be fully implemented,” Raila stated.

He spoke after an impassioned appeal from National Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi to give him space to work so that he can deliver and raise ODM’s profile instead of consistently attacking Ruto and declaring he will be a one term president.

“My brother Sifuna, please, I am a member of your party. I don’t belong to any other party. If I fail, there is no way in 2027 you will convince anyone that ODM can run a government,” he said.

On Wednesday, when Sifuna clashed with Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot, he said he was being nicer to him following Raila’s directive, otherwise he would have roasted him for heckling him.

“Honourable Speaker, why is the Majority Leader heckling? Because you have given me the mic, I think you should allow me to say what I wanted to say.”

“Fortunately for the Majority Leader, I was directed by my party leader to be nicer, and I’m going to try my best. So I am not going to respond to his heckling today because I have been put on a regimen where… niliambiwa nitoe pilipili moja,” Sifuna, who was seeking an answer from Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale over the death of a student in Kibera, said, looking visibly agitated.

The growing discontent within ODM ranks and Raila’s tacit support for Ruto’s critics has raised questions on whether their marriage is one of convenience or it will last beyond 2027 and subsequently shape up the President’s succession come 2032, if he secures another term.

Sifuna has previously vowed that he will never support  the broad-based government, instead reiterating that ODM will field a presidential candidate in 2027, something Raila has not contradicted.

“ODM is fighting to take over power through the democratic process. We are still determined, and we have not given up on our desire to lead this country. We will be there to face everyone, even William Ruto,” Sifuna said during a Ciitizen TV interview last week.

He added: “And the natural consequence of that is that we will make him the president for a one-term term because we want to take over from him so that we can do what we say.”

“My views will never change because I keep receiving reports that, even in his so-called developmental visits, he is facing huge opposition,” Sifuna said.

Previously, he has said that there is no coalition government formed between ODM and Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) even after the two signed a 10-point memorandum of agreement.

“There is no broad-based government; it’s not a coalition agreement between UDA and ODM. Ruto reached out to Raila for stability following the Gen-Z protests,” he wrote on social media after his appearing on the TV’s morning talk show where he said he does not recognise such an entity.

During the funeral service at Ramba High School, Sifuna also attracted a rebuke from Ruto over the government’s handling of Butere Girls High School students who were stopped from performing their play, Echoes of War, which was scripted by former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala, during the National Music and Drama Festival in Nakuru with the police teargassing them.

The play’s script revolved around last year’s Gen Z revolt and the government said it was banned for security reasons.

“Mheshimiwa Rais, Bishop ametuambia hapa kwamba kazi yako ni ngumu sana, na mimi nakubaliana na yeye, ata mimi saa zingine huwa najiuliza vile huwa unalala. Lakini kuna zingine, mheshimiwa rais, wanasema waswahili; ‘mwiba wa kujidunga, hauambiwi pole.’ Kuna watu kwa serikali yako kazi yao ni kushika handball kila siku. (Mr President, the Bishop has told us here that your job is very difficult, and I agree with him, even I sometimes wonder how you sleep. But there are others, Mr. President, as the Swahili say; ‘a thorn in your flesh, you don’t say sorry.’ There are people in your government whose job is to play handball every day,” said the Nairobi Senator.,” said the Nairobi Senator.

In response, Ruto asked Sifuna to go slow on him, saying he should know he was a founder member of ODM.

“Nimeskia Sifuna anaongea na nguvu. Wakati unaongea mambo yangu Sifuna, ujue mimi ndio mwanzilishi wa ODM so unaenda polepole kidogo. (I heard Sifuna speak with force. When you talk about me, Sifuna, know that I am the founder of ODM so you should go a little slow),” he said.

“Sisi ndio tulianza hii kitu. Na unajua ukinisukuma sana, nitaitisha mkutano ya founder members wa ODM…tukiitisha hiyo mkutano kukufanyia discipline, sisi ambao tulianza chama. So tuendeni mossmoss.(We are the ones who started this thing. And you know if you push me too hard, I will call a meeting of the founding members of ODM…we will call that meeting to discipline you, we who started the party. So let’s go mossmoss).”

But it is not just Sifuna who has rattled the Kenya Kwanza Alliance and those in ODM who back the working arrangement between ODM and UDA.

Siaya Governor James Orengo ruffled feathers when censured those singing praises for President Ruto, declaring he will never be sycophant during the burial of Raila’s longtime bodyguard George Oduor.

“I cannot be a praise-singer. We fought for a democratic Constitution where people should speak freely. I urge Kenyans to tell their leaders the truth. This country will go to the dogs again if the kind of language we hear continues,” Orengo said in the presence of Ruto.

Kisumu Governor Prof Anyang Nyong’o also teared into the Ruto administration for holding onto the road levy fund accusing it of undermining devolution.

“The truth is that the Ruto regime has decided to go back to pre-devolution times of the Nyayo era. The 2010 Constitution is a hindrance to its primitive accumulation schemes,” he claimed in a hard-hitting statement last month.

The sentiments received rebuke from Nominated Senator Oburu Oginga, who told those who are critical of the broad-based government to stop vomiting on them from within and instead quit ODM.

“Those who think this broad-based government is wrong are vomiting on us from within. Why don’t they step outside and vomit there?” Oburu said during President Ruto’s recent tour of Migori County.

What has left political pundits bewildered, however, is Raila’s continued support of the voicing of divergent views within the Orange party describing it as a sign of its democratic ideals, adding it also reflects the basis of the 10-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between it and President Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

“There are clear points, very explicit, and I do not see why people are bickering. When Orengo talks, he is talking on the basis of the MoU between ODM and UDA. Orengo has not committed any crime. He has a democratic right to say what he was saying,” Raila stated during the burial of Priscilla Koyo in Karachuonyo constituency on April 25.

Raila added that anybody speaking about devolution is talking the language of ODM, in effect supporting Prof Nyong’o’s sentiments.

“Devolution was the most important feature of our Constitution, but it has not worked because we have not implemented it the way it should be. That is why people are not reaping the benefits of it,” he added.

“You have devolved some responsibilities, but you have not devolved the funds. Health is a devolved function, but most of the funds are held up in Nairobi. Why should the national government hold over Sh100 billion yet the function is devolved?” he posed.

Interestingly, Oburu, who has previously hinted that ODM will support Ruto’s re-election bid in 2027, has since said it will be conditional on his delivery of the 10-point agenda.

“Our agreement with the government through the MoU we signed in March is hinged on a 10-point agenda which we are seeking the achieve through collaborative measures. We shall work with them until 2027 and if we recognise that we worked well, we shall agree, if not, we shall part ways,” Oburu said.

The assassination of Were has also opened cracks in the loose arrangement between ODM and UDA with national chairperson Gladys Wanga threatening a walkout if his killers are not brought to book.

“Who killed Kasipul MP Charles Were and why? That we want to know, and not in the far future; in the near future. We have said we are working together, but we did not sign up for the assassination of our members,” she said on May 3.

While the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has moved with unusual efficiency and arrested 12 suspects so far, Raila has insisted that they must find the mastermind.

ODM luminaries appointed to Cabinet, including Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi, his Mining and Maritime Affairs counterpart Hassan Joho and Mbadi, have, however, thrown their weight behind the broad-based government.