Editor's Review

Ruth Odinga has said ODM will not enter into any coalition without a legally binding agreement.

Kisumu County Woman Representative Ruth Odinga has said ODM will not enter into any coalition without a legally binding agreement.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, October 29, Odinga said it is necessary to have a binding agreement, even with the UDA party, to avoid repeating mistakes previously made by political parties.

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She argued that in the past, Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed between parties have previously been reduced to'gentleman agreements' which are easily violated and without recourse.

Odinga blamed this trend as part of what fuelled the tension witnessed in the country after the 2007 General Election.

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A file photo of Ruth Odinga.

"The Waki Commission, which investigated the 2007/2008 post-election violence, recorded how unmet political understandings, including the 2002 MoU within NARC, fed the grievances that fed the crisis.

"MoUs have become such a challenge in Kenyan politics that they are jokingly referred to as “memoranda without implementation”. Today, voices from Western and Central Kenya are lamenting the very same experience," she stated. 

The Woman  Rep opined that any coalition must therefore define its organs, its method of electing leaders, its dispute resolution mechanism, and even how it may be dissolved.

She called out the Interior Principal Secretary for claiming that the Luo Community must work with Ruto without any formal agreement.

The MP said that the sentiment reduces ODM to a Luo Party, yet it has a support base in Western, Coast, Turkana and even in Nyanza; it enjoys backing from residents in Kisii Nyanza.

"I reject, in the strongest terms, any attempt to present ODM as a Luo party, and therefore to suggest that the Luo are the ones party to such an agreement. It is troubling, and one reads bad faith," she wrote

She added that while the late Raila Odinga deemed coalitions necessary, ODM kept its identity, values and principles and never abandoned its values, objectives or ideology as a party.

Her sentiments came days after she declared that she would continue fighting for what the late Raila fought for, even if it meant her leaving the Orange Party.