Orengo: Why Linda Mwananchi faction will not attend ODM delegates convention

Siaya Governor James Orengo has said leaders allied to the Linda Mwananchi faction will not attend the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Special Delegates Convention scheduled for later this month, terming the meeting illegal.

Orengo argued that the planned National Delegates Convention (NDC) had not been properly convened in accordance with the party constitution.

“We can’t be part of it because it is an illegal NDC. It has not been properly convened, so we will not be able to attend it,” he told NTV in an interview on Saturday.

The convention was announced through a formal notice issued on March 5 by ODM Deputy Secretary General Catherine Omanyo, who is currently presumably also serving as acting Secretary General following the party’s decision to remove Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna from the position.

The meeting is scheduled for March 27 in Nairobi and is expected to bring together senior party officials including members of the National Executive Committee (NEC), the parliamentary group, governors, county assembly leaders and representatives of the party’s youth, women and disability leagues.

Among the agenda items listed are the ratification of a National Governing Council (NGC) resolution on party leadership, consideration of a NEC resolution on Article 87 of the party constitution and an address by the party leader.

However, Orengo insists the notice convening the meeting is procedurally flawed.

According to him, the ODM constitution requires that once the NDC is summoned, notice must be issued by the Secretary General of the party.

“The special NDC has to be convened by the Chairperson of the party following a resolution of the National Executive Council, or a requisition by delegates,” he said.

“But having been summoned, the National Delegates Convention must be given notice by the Secretary General. That is mandatory.”

Orengo also criticised what he described as inconsistencies in Omanyo’s role within the party leadership.

“The notice we have seen is in the hands of the Deputy Secretary General. When it suits them she is the Deputy Secretary General, when they are in public she becomes the Acting Secretary General. You can see the kind of games they are playing,” he said.

The Siaya Governor further claimed the convention was being used as a vehicle to legitimise party officials who have not been elected by delegates.

“The manner in which this NDC has been convened, they want to illegally endorse certain officials who have never been elected by the National Delegates Convention,” he said.

“They want, by acclamation, for those people to be pronounced as national officials.”

The dispute over the delegates convention comes amid a widening rift within ODM that has seen the party split into two rival factions.

One camp, known as Linda Ground, is aligned with party leader Dr. Oburu Oginga and is seen as supportive of a broader political arrangement that could see ODM cooperate with President William Ruto’s camp ahead of the 2027 General Election.

The opposing Linda Mwananchi faction, associated with Sifuna and several other ODM leaders including Orengo and Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, has opposed any rapprochement with the ruling coalition and insists the party should remain firmly in the opposition.

Despite the escalating tensions, Orengo dismissed suggestions that the faction could abandon ODM to form a new political outfit.

“We are not going to register another party. We are members of ODM, we will remain members of ODM, we will fight from within the party,” he said.

He added that the decision to remove Sifuna as Secretary General has since been successfully challenged and stayed through legal means.

“The removal of Edwin Sifuna as Secretary General has been challenged and as we speak, Edwin Sifuna is still the Secretary General of ODM,” Orengo said.

The upcoming convention has been widely viewed as a crucial moment that could determine the direction of the party as it grapples with leadership disputes and competing visions ahead of the next election cycle.