Orengo defends ODM amid concern over broad-based govt backlash
Siaya Governor James Orengo has defended the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), dismissing growing public criticism that the party has lost touch with its base.
Speaking in an interview on a local TV station on Wednesday, October 8, 2025, Orengo brushed off claims that ODM is fading in influence or relevance, especially in the wake of widespread discontent over national governance issues.
You might also like
“Any time when people have been on the streets on any issue, be it IEBC, problems about IEBC, probably about the budget, or about governance generally, the party that would normally come out in front with the people, even up to now, I say, is ODM,” Orengo stated.
Orengo’s remarks come after TIFA’s latest survey showed that support for the Ruto–Raila broad-based government had increased by 7 per cent.
Orengo, a long-standing politician in the Raila-led faction, stressed that ODM has never shied away from confronting the government and standing with ordinary citizens.
“Rallies any party can do, but taking issues for the people and confronting the government of the day, without issue, just to be judged on the basis of what it is: a party of the broad mass of people and a progressive party, a progressive movement,” he argued.
The county boss was initially critical of the UDA-ODM pact but later ramped up support for it after intervention from Raila. He openly differed with the party’s Politburo over association with President William Ruto.
But now, he said, much of the current political landscape, both in government and opposition, has become overly focused on the 2027 elections at the expense of addressing present-day problems.
“Compared to those parties that tend to exist around the elections only, ODM has had some challenges, for example, the big role of election time and again, and whenever ODM has tried to correct that, the debate dies,” Orengo said.
Future of ODM?
His remarks come amid growing criticism from civil society and even traditional ODM supporters who have questioned the party’s silence or caution on pressing issues like the cost of living and governance questions since the broad-based government.
Meanwhile, most Kenyans see the pact between Ruto and ODM as a personal political advancement rather than catering to ordinary citizens.
This is according to the latest TIFA report released on Wednesday, September 24, 2025, conducted between August 2025 and September 3, 2025.
According to the poll’s findings, 37 per cent of respondents described the broad-based arrangement as a political pact that largely serves the interests of the leaders involved.
27 per cent argue that the Ruto-Raila deal is undermining democracy and that it lacked public participation.
Critically, the report indicates that 17 per cent of Kenyans say the broad-based pact is irrelevant to the public needs.
Even as the two leaders pledge to tighten the noose on graft in government, 8 per cent of Kenyans hold the view that their pact is promoting corruption.
