ODM Boss in a tight spot as Azimio allies decline to join GNU despite readiness of his friends to join at whatever cost
By THE DISPATCH.DIGITAL REPORTER
ODM Leader Raila Odinga made specific demands on President William Ruto before making a public commitment to join the proposed Government of National Unity. It was partly because those demands had not been fully met, and resistance from members of the Azimio Coalition, along with some leaders within ODM refusing to endorse the move that prevented President Ruto from announcing a full GNU, which sources said had been completed with proposed names from Raila included.
Raila’s representatives in the GNU had included Ali Hassan Joho, Junet Sheikh Mohammed and Wycliffe Oparanya while it had been proposed that Kalonzo Musyoka be offered a position in the Cabinet. However, things got complicated when Musyoka refused to join the GNU, saying, “We shall not participate in or support the proposed Kenya Kwanza led broad based government of national unity because this is a betrayal of the Kenyan people particularly Gen Zs and Millennials. As long as the Kenya Kwanza regime remains in place absolutely nothing will change.”
And in a warning apparently directed at Raila, he added, “Should any of our members opt to join the proposed Kenya Kwanza led broad based government of national unity we shall not be party to that decision. They will be joining in their individual capacity and not on behalf of Azimio Coalition.”
There has been widespread speculation that Raila had agreed to join Ruto’s government and save it from collapsing under the pressure of protests. Sources said that it was after agreeing to save Ruto’s regime as repayment for favours received that Raila’s people started pushing the narrative that the Gen Z demonstrations were a Kikuyu affairs and not a concern for ‘Onagi’ or Luo Nation. Raila’s propagandists, led by MPs depending on him to win their seats, claimed that it’s the Kikuyu elite that is behind the ongoing Gen Z protests and revulsion to the regime. This has been despite youth in Raila’s Luo strongholds of Kisumu, Migori, Siaya and Homa Bay taking to the streets to protest against entrenched corruption in their counties and in the national government. The youth, almost all of them unemployed or unable to access higher education, have been weaponised by Raila and his allies in his negotiations with Ruto and is alleged to be using them as the ultimate weapon that will be deployed on the streets to counter Gen Z protestors.
Raila’s allies have also claimed, falsely, that the Gen Z protestors are from the Kikuyu tribe, even though a survey released this morning showed that a majority of the protestors were Luo and from his Nyanza stronghold.
On his meeting with Ruto, our embedded source revealed that acting out of the paranoia and mistrust that has taken hold of him since the Gen Z protests started, Ruto’s security subjected Raila and his friend Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo to humiliating but thorough screening at the gates before they were allowed into Ruto’s presence. The due was also allegedly sprayed.
“After getting to Ruto,” the source said, “they were not allowed near him because he (Ruto) has become very suspicious. They had to sit far away, the way people visiting (President) Yoweri Museveni (of Uganda) sit.”
The source reported that at the talks, Raila demanded the following;
1. His daughter Rosemary Odinga to be appointed to a state job
2. Ruto to make him AU Chair by intensifying his campaign
3. He gets a refund of the money he spent on the 2022 election campaigns
4. His ODM team gets five ministerial positions while the rest of Azimio gets three.
While it was not clear how Ruto responded to the demands, the ODM Leader is said to have left Statehouse with his SUV heaving under the weight of a cash gift.
True to the adage that one doesn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, Raila appears to have reached a point of no return in his relationship with Ruto and cannot be expected not to support him as his government is attacked from all sides. It may not matter much what the public thinks as Raila’s close allies in ODM, Ali Hassan Joho and Wycliffe Oparanya both former governors, are jobless but are said to be warming up to become Cabinet Secretaries in the reconstituted Ruto Cabinet, regardless of the public opinion, which sees such a move as betrayal.
“The characters of these fellows have been revealed to us; they’re tumbocrats and serve their own interests,” says a former ODM official who did not want to be named. “The public is just used to disguise their greed. I am especially disappointed by Baba (Raila) whom I have supported for many years. But now it seems they have sold their souls to the Devil and there is no coming back.”
There was palpable disappointment in some of Raila’s strongholds with many supporters adopting a cautious approach. While many were cautious not to condemn him, some spoke out against his most recent political move of aligning with Ruto at a time the country was on the verge of change. Some claimed that Raila had never entered a presidential race to win but to become a powerful outside calling the shots in government.
Raila’s moves could lead to the breakup of his Azimio coalition, whose members have rejected the offer to dialogue with Ruto. Raila and Ruto’s propagandists have however claimed that the fallout in Azimio occurred because Uhuru Kenyatta, the former President and Azimio Party Leader, decided to throw Raila under the bus and back Kalonzo Musyoka to unseat Ruto in 2027 at the latest.
Some of these innuendos, gossip, suppositions and rumours have been published in the traditional press as the truth, which makes them believable. However, media sources have suggested that these have been stories planted in the media by embedded government agents in the press to drive the Raila agenda. Raila has for years had his own embedded journalists who drive his agenda in the press.