Dr. Oburu Oginga Meeting Kalonzo and Gachagua is Good and Smart for Kenya Politics

Kenyans know these political leaders met at the funeral of Johnson Muthama’s son, but the great thing is that they were very friendly and respectful as they talked to each other.

That is mature politics and Kenyans appreciate that very much. But quite frankly this was no secret meeting where Oburu was facing Gachagua and Kalonzo for some secret plans on where their politics go from here. But who knows?

ODM Oburu Oginga and DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua in Machakos

In media news today, DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua, Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka and ODM’s Oburu Oginga held talks in a private meeting in Machakos on February 13, 2026.

The meeting brought together the three senior political figures amid ongoing realignments within the country’s political landscape.

Details of the discussions were not immediately made public.

However, the engagement is likely to attract attention given the evolving dynamics ahead of the next electoral cycle

This was a very smart move by Oburu Oginga and his ODM team for very good reasons. One thing is that Oburu and ODM would be making a big mistake to sit in a locked place where they are tied with President William Ruto and his UDA party to the hip and cannot move one way or the other. If they do that it would make it very easy for William Ruto to box them in and give them a coalition deal that serves William Ruto more than anybody else and that would not be fair to Kenyans.

Oburu and ODM need to go into the negotiation table with President Ruto and UDA when all options are available to them including running their own presidential candidate or working with other likeminded political groups. If ODM find Gachagua and DCP too toxic to work with there are other options out there but ODM has made it clear that the first option is to negotiate with Ruto and his team.

In fact, looking at a statement from Kiambu Senator Karung’o Thang’wah right after the meeting tells Kenyans already how it is almost impossible for Oburu and ODM to work with Gachagua and his team.

Karung’o Thang’wah shared the photos on Friday, February 13, 2026, confirming the meeting.

The two, who have often been on opposite sides, trading political blows, are captured sharing a light moment, greeting each other, and even hugging while also appearing solemn in the sombre mood of the funeral.

It is what Karung’o Thang’wah, Gachagua’s big buddy, said to the media after the meeting that probably will help Oburu and ODM to understand who they are dealing when they talk with Gachagua and DCP.

“Sen. Dr Oburu has been reminded by H.E RiggyG that Canaan is in the Middle East while Singapore is in Asia, so there is no way you can reach Canaan through Singapore unless you have no sense of direction and or, are completely lost,” the Kiambu senator told the media.

The nonsense that Oburu Oginga who was in politics before this Thang’wah dude was born fighting for his country which detained, tortured, jailed and tried to kill so many members of his immediate family needs some Thang’wah and Gachagua to remind him about Kenyans battles to reach Canaan which is what Raila Odinga talked about until his death tells us just how backward and self-centred this Gachagua team is.

Oburu does not need to go to meet Gachagua to learn anything since Gachagua was a D.O in Molo killing 5,000 Kikuyus who did not vote for Moi in 1992 in Rift Valley Province at that time, when Dr. Oburu was elected from the opposition in the fight to end the Moi dictatorship. How is that and this Gachagua going to tell Oburu Oginga and ODM what fighting for democracy and human rights mean in Kenya.

These Gachagua boys need some basic manners and common sense for anybody to take them seriously. They think Rigathi Gachagua is the new god for Kenya politics and everybody else just have to line up behind him. ODM will not do that, thank you very much.

It is a very good thing Oburu as ODM leader was open minded enough to go for that meeting and if they come up with that kind condescending trivialities they are telling Oburu that Gachagua door is locked with primitive politics and that is okay they can go their way in 2027 and Oburu and ODM will do what they think is best for the country.

At the moment ODM is setting their priorities right and it looks good on them going to the next election. They have dealt with the so-called ODM rebels and that chapter is now closed and ODM need to let the process takes its own path wherever it ends. There is no need for the ODM and Oburu leadership to be pegged down with a problem they have already dealt with. Oburu and ODM will do themselves a great service to just let that whole thing go away.

There are endless idle Kenyan politicians some of them MPs who have never done a single thing for their constituents since they were elected and their specialty is to post crap on their X accounts so that some media types pick that up and those MPs are somewhere in the news. Let those idlers spend the next two years talking about ODM, Sifuna and whatever else because they have nothing else to talk about that means anything to their constituents.

The second thing for ODM to do which they are already handling is to keep the Linda Ground campaign going and focus on voter registration starting with young people getting the ID cards they need to register as voters. I was impressed when Alego Usonga MP Mr. Atandi told the media that in his constituency they have helped 8,000 young Kenyans to get the I.D cards and now they are going for voter registration.

The third thing for ODM is already on course as they have set up March 27, 2026 National Delegates Convention (NDC) to deal with their internal issues but more importantly to set up the agenda for ODM negotiations to work with President Ruto and UDA towards a joint political agenda for the country towards 2027 General Elections.

ODM can have shared plans with President Ruto and his UDA group, but ODM has to define their own agenda for Kenya and that means going out talking to Kenyans and looking at all levels and coming up with a development agenda of their own. Where does ODM see Kenya going in the next ten or so years.

Gachagua and his folks only have the fake “WANTAM” agenda which is now too boring even for them to talk about. ODM does not have the luxury of being clueless about what Kenyans and the whole country needs to make life better for its citizens. Kenya already have enough of those kinds of politicians in the opposition.

ODM needs to start with important things for Kenyans and that means looking at how our healthcare is working with the new SHA system and how that can be improved. Gachagua and his clueless group want to go back to Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) which collapsed and nobody is going back there.

How can healthcare services be improved for Kenyans to make those with little income and lots of healthcare needs get what they need in public health. The politicians have billions of taxpayer money for the private healthcare services and go to Dubai for treatment if they have a small headache or diarrhea. Kenyan public do not have that luxury.

Start with health, go to education for our youth and look into all possibilities to make things better for the country. Look into economic possibilities for young people and look into this President Ruto NYOTA business and talk to those Kenyans getting the little assistance and see if it is working for them and where things can be improved.

That is what the opposition was supposed to do for Kenyans, but President Ruto has mesmerized them into being completely planless for Kenyans.

If Oburu Oginga and ODM can look into all those things that matter most to Kenyans and come up with credible plans and options for their work with William Ruto that is what will serve ODM, UDA, Ruto and Kenyans best.

Already there is a lot of dirty talk with some politicians scared that ODM may want to take the Deputy Presidential candidate job and they are saying stupid things that nobody and certainly ODM should pay attention to at any time.

Laikipia East MP Mwangi Kiunjuri stated: “Kila mtu anaona msichana mzuri anaitwa kiti ya Deputy President, lakini huyu msichana ako na mwenyewe. Ni bibi ya mtu, ametolewa mahari, kunyemelewa sisi ni kuhakikisha tumelisha vizuri, kwa nini tuogope mwanume mwengine?”

This is the kind of arrogance which tells ODM that they need political options unless they want to be the “unmarried wife” of some crazy politicians. The DP job is not a big deal because DPs do absolutely nothing other than following orders from their boss who is the president.

The greed about holding the DP job that we are hearing is just their hope that come 2032 they will walk into State House. There is no such guarantee otherwise Uhuru Kenyatta would have been Kenya’s president in 2002 as dictator Moi’s little boy. That did not work out. Why? Because political dynamics can change any time.

When Kenyans look at what Dr. Oburu Oginga has been doing since taking the ODM leadership it is nice to see that he is a guy for whom power for its own sake means nothing. Those are the kind of leaders Kenya needs at this stage in our struggle to get the country to the next level.

Oburu Oginga is 83 years old and looks very healthy which is great but anybody thinking he wants to be the DP so he can become the president seven years from now when he is 90 years old needs to get their head examined for their sake and not for Oburu.

Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada