Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has criticized sections of ODM party leadership, accusing them of divided loyalty amid the ongoing zoning disputes.
Speaking on Thursday, April 16, Sifuna said he has observed meetings where some leaders appear to align themselves with both ODM and UDA.
According to Sifuna, this conduct has weakened ODM internally and offers President William Ruto an opportunity to take over.
"I see meetings here where they are dressed half UDA and half ODM. Then they come back crying about zoning.
"We have allowed our party to be infiltrated and cannibalized because, at the end of the day, even William Ruto is a shrewd politician; he has seen an opportunity," he said.
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This comes days after Kisumu Woman Rep Ruth Odinga clashed with UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar over zoning ahead of the 2027 general election.
In a statement on Sunday, April 5, Odinga said the remarks by Omar should be a wake-up call for the ODM party leaders.
The Kisumu Woman Rep emphasized that the ODM party should firmly defend its strongholds and not allow UDA to field candidates in those regions.
"As a founding member of the ODM Party. In light of a recent statement by UDA party Secretary General Hassan Omar, claiming that the UDA party will field candidates in every corner of this nation, there could never be a better wake-up call for everyone who has ODM interests at heart.
"We must come out as a party and defend our strongholds. We cannot sit pretty. Nobody will take you seriously when all you do is praise and worship," she stated.
Odinga went on to say the ODM party should not go into negotiations with UDA from a position of weakness, insisting that the ODM party should match UDA’s ambition by fielding candidates nationwide.
"We won't go into any negotiating table while playing second fiddle. To my fellow ODM leader, especially in Kisumu, where I have immense political interests, whatever you want, you must get it under one strong ODM Party," she added.
Further, Odinga called for intensified voter mobilization, noting that numbers would be key in strengthening the party’s bargaining power.
"We must have the numbers first before we can speak about negotiations. And I was there in the 2007 post-election chaos and the negotiations that came with it, steered by the former UN Secretary General, the late Kofi Annan. Without the numbers, nobody was going to take the ODM Party seriously," she further said.
Omar had laughed off ODM’s zoning demands, saying the UDA party will field candidates across the country.
He argued that if ODM is confident in its strongholds, it should allow other parties to field candidates in those areas.
"ODM says the Coast is their stronghold; we are telling them the Coast belongs to the people of the Coast, let us compete fairly. And they claim that even if some of us are allowed to vie for seats, we cannot defeat them in their ODM zones.
"If you have that kind of courage and confidence, then what problem is the issue with us in contesting for those seats?" he posed.
