Millie Odhiambo: Our problems in ODM are self-inflicted
ODM has now turned itself into a funeral party where ODM key leaders run to every burial anywhere and then launch some nasty insults at other leaders.
We are not talking about party whackos like UDA has their Samson Cherargei, but here we are talking about key leaders who are supposed to hold ODM together.
We have the ODM Secretary General who has decided that he has to abuse other ODM leaders whenever he goes to funerals. It seems some ODM leaders must be very disappointed when nobody in politics or their family members is dead and there is no funeral for a week.
The really scary thing here for ODM is that as Kenyans look at the level of pettiness and nonsensical things they are fighting about Kenyans must be asking themselves what would happen to the country had Raila Odinga won the presidency. Would the kind of leaders Kenyans see in ODM now have been able to actually run a government.
It almost looks like William Ruto saved the country from a possible total chaos with an ODM government where leaders are tearing each other’s noses for fun. There is absolutely nothing these ODM leaders are fighting about which means the smallest anything to Kenyans. It is all about themselves.
Now these so-called ODM leaders are fighting about who was eating Uhuru’s money and that is a big national discussion for them in funerals. If anybody wants to eat Uhuru Kenyatta’s money right now, just go to Jubilee and you will be loaded. That is a problem that can be solved very easily without dragging ODM to the dustbin.
The kind of things ODM leaders are fighting about is impossible to figure out because it is all personal vendettas. How did these mediocre leaders get to hold such high positions in ODM which is a colossal national party.
They don’t even want to allow their leader, Raila Odinga, whom they pretend to praise all the time, just a few months in his grave with peace. Is the old guy crying, of course not because he knows these problems can be fixed and saw that his entire political life for forty years since 1982.
Strangely enough, Edwin Sifuna’s big war now is about who helped Raila when he was running for the presidency. It makes you want to throw up that people who are busy destroying everything Raila Odinga built for his country are pretending to be doing so because they love Raila so much. Give us a break, please.
Some ODM leaders are asking Oburu Odinga, the new leader to call a meeting to sort things out.
The way things are going that meeting should be held in a boxing ring or wrestling place so that the Sifunas and others can have their wrestling marches all day or week if necessary and leave ODM alone to move on without the embarrassment of having such fake leaders. Raila Odinga sure must have been a genius to have held these ODM leaders together without tying them up in ropes.
If we were as stupid as some of our leaders think we are, Kenyans may be excused to say that ODM just needs to go away and Kenyans from across the country will find something else.
Other leaders like Sifuna and his buddies can run over to Gachagua and change his name to Edwin Kamotho and he will be the next Nairobi governor if that is making him so thirsty as to destroy his own party.
In media reports today, Suba North Member of Parliament Millie Odhiambo offered a sobering appraisal of the unity problems bedeviling the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party amid infighting and heated accusations among sections of its members.
“Our challenges are self-inflicted. We must come together as a party, look inwardly, and solve our issues. We are the ones inflicting harm upon ourselves; we are creating a lot of confusion within our membership,” she stated.
Her remarks came after those of her Rarieda counterpart, Otiende Amollo, who called for an end to the conflict and war of words between Secretary General Edwin Sifuna and National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohamed.
Otiende stated that with the 2027 elections nearing, the party should instead focus on more important matters, such as strengthening its organs and structures ahead of the decisive polls.
“Divisive rhetoric has taken over our politics without restraint. It is time to walk back on the rhetoric and come back to build a strong party ahead of the next elections in 2027.”
Personally, I have loved ODM with all my heart as an activist fighting for the same things that ODM has been helping our country to achieve like the 2010 new constitution and all the good work they have done to stand up to the likes of Moi and later Kibaki to help build Kenya to where it is today.
I am humiliated to reach a point where everything I see tells me a tiny number of party leaders are killing ODM for their own selfish interests, and maybe be it is time to look into alternatives for the country. ODM was built by Kenyans, not by noisy, greedy people who were nowhere in politics when the party was being built. Shame on them.
For the millions of Kenyans who have built ODM and helped the party achieve so much for the country, they know the party has been fighting for them for two decades and has achieved a lot of positive things for the country.
Allowing a tiny group of power-hungry politicians to dismantle the party is one of the most shameful things our country has seen but it is happening right before our eyes. Hopefully, there are no funerals this week for them to go piss on themselves. Good luck with that for ODM.
Here is the ODM Kenyans know, and they are going to take it back and build it even better.
