Advocate Weighs In on Emerging Factions Within ODM

By Kepher Otieno - Reporter

Kenya, 19 January 2026 - The death of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga marked the end of an era, but it has also exposed unresolved tensions within the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and the broader Luo political imagination.

As internal disagreements spill into public view, a deeper debate has emerged: is ODM synonymous with the Luo community, and does political legitimacy pass through family lineage?

Political observer, advocate and analyst Joshua Nyamori, argues that this confusion lies at the heart of the current turmoil.

“ODM is a political party. The Luo are a people. And the Raila Odinga family inheritance is private,” Nyamori says.

“Conflating the three is not only intellectually lazy, it is politically reckless.”

Recent weeks have seen sharp internal ODM fault lines, with senior party figures pulling in different directions.

What should have been an orderly transition has instead revealed generational, ideological and strategic divisions—some of which now risk weakening both the party and the community that has historically formed its backbone.

Nyamori notes that Raila Odinga’s enduring political genius was his ability to keep clear boundaries: ODM as a national vehicle, Luo identity as cultural and social, and family affairs as strictly private. That discipline, he warns, is now under threat.“A people are not an estate. A nation is not a will. Grief is not a political mandate,” he says.

At the centre of the storm is a contest over moral authority within ODM.

On one side stands Dr Oburu Oginga Odinga, Raila’s elder brother, who has stepped in as a stabilising force during the transition.

On the other is a more vocal, media-savvy faction—associated with figures such as Winnie Odinga, Babu Owino, and Edwin Sifuna—whose abrasive-style politics has shocked the other faction.

According to Nyamori, Oburu’s role has been widely misunderstood.

“Oburu is not scrambling for power or relevance. He is exercising stewardship at a moment of uncertainty,” he says.

“You cannot replace Raila, but you can anchor the party so it does not drift into chaos.”

This stewardship, Nyamori argues, has included engaging President William Ruto’s administration—an approach that has drawn criticism from hardliners but is yielding tangible state presence in Luo Nyanza through infrastructure, housing, energy, and markets.

“Engagement is not submission,” Nyamori says.

“It is statecraft. Power that listens is better than pride that shouts.”

These engagements reflect a broader realignment—or transversal—within ODM politics, where pragmatic cooperation with the state is competing with less submissive opposition politics.

The tension has exposed a strategic dilemma: whether ODM remains locked in perpetual resistance or recalibrates to secure economic and developmental gains for its support base.

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Nyamori is blunt in his assessment of the emerging activist faction within the party.

“They confuse visibility with value, rebellion with relevance, and lineage with legitimacy,” he says.

“Their politics excites social media, but it weakens real leverage.”

One phrase, often repeated in ODM circles—“Oburu is the party leader until…”—has become emblematic of this uncertainty.

“Until what?” Nyamorii asks.

“Until inheritance matures into entitlement? Leadership is not held in trust for bloodlines. It is earned in service to the living.”

Beyond ODM, Nyamori insists that the Luo people must decouple their collective future from internal party squabbles.

“ODM can debate, realign or even fracture. The Luo must still move forward,” he says.

He argues that the community has paid a heavy price in the past for politics built on grievance rather than strategy—delivering protests instead of progress, slogans instead of jobs.

The current moment, he says, demands a shift from sentiment to strategy.

Nyamori calls for broader engagement between the state and Luo society—not just politicians, but elders, professionals, faith leaders, traders, farmers, fisherfolk, youth and women’s groups.

“In that engagement, the state will find not hostility but readiness,” he says.

“A people prepared to trade noise for progress and memory for momentum.”

As ODM navigates its most delicate transition in decades, the question remains whether it can rediscover Raila Odinga’s discipline—or whether internal rivalries will redefine it.

For Nyamori, the stakes go beyond party offices.

“The Luo are not asking for privilege,” he says.

“They are claiming their place in the future. And the future does not belong to the loudest. It belongs to the wisest.”