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Caleb Amisi declares ODM politically dead
28th July, 2025 06:54 PM
Saboti Member of Parliament (MP) Caleb Amisi has said that the Orange Democratic Movement is a political shipwreck.
In an interview on a local radio station on Monday, July 28, 2025, the legislator called on the party leadership to address the issues urgently, calling on young people to respect the party leader, Raila Odinga.
However, the legislator remarked that the ODM leader, Raila, should be respected because of the space that he holds democratically, even if they don’t agree in terms of ideology.
“As we speak, we are experiencing ‘Disco Matanga’ in ODM. Basically, it is dead, we are now dancing, waiting for the burial day, that’s what is happening. Something must be done urgently,” Amisi asserted.
“Some of us respect former Prime Minister Raila Odinga as much as we don’t agree, you will never hear me abusing him because he has a space in history, but young people do not understand that. They will abuse him on social media; some of us do not agree with him completely, but we have told him to his face what is wrong. You will never hear us abuse him.”
This is even as camps comprising key ODM figures from the Western and Nyanza regions are slowly taking shape as Raila’s party faces its biggest threat of a split ahead of the general polls.
At the centre of the clash is Secretary General Edwin Sifuna’s insistence that the party must not support President Ruto’s reelection bid.
The ODM’s rift
The comments were interpreted as veering off the ODM script, especially after Raila indicated the possibility of rallying the party behind the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) chief.
What started as differing views on the party’s 2027 political strategy has now escalated into a full-blown rivalry between the two key factions within the Orange party.
The internal tensions burst into the open over the weekend, with the opposing camps holding separate meetings in Kisumu and Kakamega counties.
In Kakamega, MPs aligned with Sifuna used the county delegates’ meeting to rally support for the Nairobi Senator, who had earlier dismissed the political deal between President William Ruto and Raila Odinga.
Meanwhile, in Muhoroni constituency, ODM leaders from Nyanza held a parallel event where they launched sharp attacks against Sifuna.
Leading the Nyanza faction, ODM national chairperson and Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga criticised Sifuna, accusing him of overstepping on matters concerning the Ruto-Raila pact.
“Raila Odinga has never instructed us to leave the agreement. So, if you speak against the broad-based government, you’re not speaking on behalf of ODM,” Wanga said.
To bring the party on track, Raila has moved to convene a Central Management Committee, where the sticky issues will be discussed and a common position taken.
