This thing of removing people makes our work very difficult
ODM leadership has removed senior officials including Secretary General Edwin Sifuna over perceived criticism of the party's alignment with Kenya Kwanza administration. Oparanya warns that intolerance for dissent is eroding ODM's bargaining power and confusing grassroots supporters in Western Kenya ahead of 2027 elections.
- ODM removed Secretary General Edwin Sifuna and Deputy Party Leader Godfrey Osotsi over perceived criticism of alignment with Kenya Kwanza
- Sifuna challenged his removal at the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal
- Oparanya convened a Monday meeting of elected leaders to address ODM unity and regional political direction
- MPs Antoney Kibagendi and Wanami Wamboka faced parliamentary suspensions; Kibagendi was later reinstated
Cooperatives CS Wycliffe Oparanya calls for ceasefire within ODM, warning that internal feuds and removal of dissenting members are undermining President Ruto's re-election campaign and weakening the broad-based political coalition.
Wycliffe Oparanya, the Cabinet Secretary for Cooperatives, stood in Busia over the weekend and issued a warning that cut to the heart of a political problem now threatening to unravel the coalition holding President William Ruto's re-election strategy together. The trouble, he said, was not coming from outside ODM—it was coming from within, and it was getting worse.
ODM, the Orange Democratic Movement, has spent recent months purging its own ranks. The party's leadership has moved to remove or isolate senior figures who have questioned the party's deepening alignment with Ruto's Kenya Kwanza administration. The removals have been swift and public. Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, one of the party's most visible figures, was removed after expressing skepticism about the direction ODM was heading. Deputy party leader Godfrey Osotsi faced the same fate. Sifuna has since challenged his removal at the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal, setting up a legal confrontation that signals the depth of the fracture.
Oparanya, himself a former deputy party leader, framed the problem plainly: the party was making a strategic mistake. "This thing of removing people from the party makes our work very difficult," he said. "It is making our work of campaigning for the President very difficult." The issue was not abstract. When he traveled through Western Kenya—his home region, and also the home of both Sifuna and Osotsi—he encountered supporters asking questions he could not answer. Why were these leaders being cast out? What was happening to the party they had always known as broad-based and accommodating of different views? The removals had created confusion at the grassroots level, exactly where a political coalition needs to hold firm.
What Oparanya was describing was a party in the grip of ideological and strategic conflict. Some ODM leaders wanted to fully cooperate with Ruto's government. Others, increasingly drawn to a movement called Linda Mwananchi, wanted to maintain distance and opposition. The internal purges were an attempt to settle that argument by force—by removing the dissenters. But the cost was becoming visible. ODM's bargaining power, Oparanya warned, was being eroded. The party's ability to speak with one voice, to represent the diverse coalition that had historically given it strength, was fracturing.
The problem extended beyond party headquarters. In Parliament, MPs aligned with ODM had faced disciplinary action. Antoney Kibagendi, representing Kitutu Chache South, was suspended after questioning Parliament's independence in a television interview; he was later reinstated. Wanami Wamboka, from Bumula, faced suspension over allegations of intimidating witnesses. The pattern was the same: dissent met with punishment.
Oparanya's intervention—he had convened a meeting of elected leaders for Monday to discuss the region's political direction and ODM's future—signaled something deeper than a plea for party unity. Political observers saw in his words a growing anxiety among senior figures aligned with Ruto. They understood that prolonged internal warfare within ODM could weaken the party's grassroots structures precisely when Ruto needed them most. ODM controlled significant political territory, especially in Western Kenya. If that territory fractured, Ruto's path to re-election in 2027 would become considerably harder.
Oparanya's call was for restraint, for dialogue, for tolerance of dissent. "I want to plead with those in leadership to stop this rampant removal of people," he said. He was asking ODM's top leadership to recognize that unity and diversity were not opposites—that a broad-based coalition required the ability to hold people with different views. As the 2027 election cycle began to take shape and political realignments accelerated, the question facing ODM was whether it could survive its own internal reckoning, or whether the cost of enforcing conformity would be the loss of the very power it was trying to protect.
Notable Quotes
We are making a mistake as ODM leaders. This thing of removing people from the party makes our work very difficult. It is making our work of campaigning for the President very difficult.— Wycliffe Oparanya, Cabinet Secretary for Cooperatives
I want to plead with those in leadership to stop this rampant removal of people. Unity and tolerance were essential if the broader political coalition was to remain stable and effective.— Wycliffe Oparanya
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does Oparanya care so much about what happens inside ODM if he's in Ruto's Cabinet?
Because ODM still controls the ground in Western Kenya. If the party tears itself apart, those voters don't automatically transfer their loyalty to Ruto. They become confused, uncertain. That's dangerous for a re-election campaign.
But isn't removing dissenting voices a normal thing for a political party to do?
It can be. But Oparanya is arguing that ODM's strength was always that it could hold different views under one tent. Once you start purging people, you're not just removing individuals—you're signaling that the party has changed its character. That message travels fast at the grassroots.
What's really at stake here—is it about Sifuna and Osotsi, or something bigger?
It's about whether ODM cooperates fully with Ruto or maintains some independence. The removals are a way of settling that argument by force. But Oparanya sees that as a losing strategy because it weakens the coalition's overall stability.
So Oparanya is essentially saying: you're winning the internal battle but losing the war?
Exactly. He's saying the cost of enforcing conformity is higher than the benefit. You get a more compliant party, but you get a weaker one.
What happens if ODM doesn't listen to him?
The fractures deepen. The Linda Mwananchi movement attracts more defectors. Ruto loses leverage in opposition strongholds heading into 2027. The coalition that was supposed to be broad-based becomes brittle.
Is Oparanya's Monday meeting likely to change anything?
It's a signal that senior figures are worried enough to act. But whether it actually stops the removals depends on whether ODM's top leadership believes the cost of continued purges outweighs the benefit. Right now, they seem to think it doesn't.