Oburu Odinga Nyanza ODM pressure mounts as veteran party stalwart Newton Ogada, a former Kasipul parliamentary aspirant and community pillar, declares his exit from the Orange Democratic Movement, citing brutal primaries that left his hospital in ruins and his faith in the party’s future shattered.
Ogada, 52 and a philanthropist whose free clinics have stitched wounds in Homa Bay’s backroads for over a decade, broke the news during a sombre presser at his vandalised facility in Oyugis town on Monday, his voice thick with the weight of betrayal.
The September 24 primaries, meant to crown nominees for upcoming by-elections, devolved into a brawl of flying fists and shattered glass, Ogada recounted, with his vehicles torched and medical equipment smashed in broad daylight.
“I lost over KSh 4 million in assets that served the poor,” he said, gesturing to boarded windows and a fleet of charred pickups rusting in the compound.
“This wasn’t competition; it was carnage. Could you imagine the silence from above? Deafening.”
The fallout hits Oburu Odinga, Raila Odinga’s elder brother and ODM’s acting chair since the October 15 tragedy, like a squall over Lake Victoria.
With Raila’s graveside still fresh in Bondo, Oburu’s push for party unity and a potential 2027 coalition feels frayed at the edges.
Ogada, a long-time foot soldier who bankrolled youth rallies and fed flood victims in 2023, levelled blame at the top.
“Reports to police and party bosses vanished into thin air,” he fumed, clutching a stack of ignored complaints.
“No leader condemned the thugs, and no aid for my losses. This is betrayal of the loyalists who bled for ODM’s birth.”
Nyanza, ODM’s ironclad fortress where the party snagged 80 per cent in 2022, now simmers with whispers of more walkouts.
Ogada’s gripes echo grumbles from Kisumu’s market traders and Siaya’s elders, who decry primaries rigged by cash and clans over merit.
“Oburu’s got Raila’s shadow, but not his steel,” confided one anonymous branch official over evening chai in Rongo, where Ogada’s clinics once drew queues at dawn.
Party insiders peg at least five more aspirants mulling jumps to smaller outfits like the Democratic Party, fearing a brain drain that could dent ODM’s 2027 war chest.
Reactions poured in swiftly. ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna, from his Nairobi perch, issued a measured statement Tuesday, vowing “internal probes” but dodging direct apologies.
“We regret the incidents; healing starts with dialogue,” he said, blending Ogada’s pleas with memes of ballot boxes on fire.
For Oburu, 82 and a diplomat turned damage controller, the pressure tests his interim grip. Raila’s death left ODM adrift, with factions pulling in different directions.
Ogada’s bolt, framed as a stand for “democracy over dynasty”, spotlights the peril: lose Nyanza’s grassroots, and the party’s pulse weakens.
Oburu Odinga Nyanza ODM pressure isn’t a fleeting feud; it’s a fracture in the foundation, urging a reckoning before 2027’s horns blow.
