The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has sounded the alarm over what it describes as a systematic infiltration of its grassroots structures by the ruling party United Democratic Alliance (UDA), in Western Kenya.<\/p>\n
ODM Deputy Party Leader Godfrey Osotsi revealed that several party legislators and officials in Vihiga and Kakamega Counties have been incorporated into UDA meetings, including a Tuesday gathering at a hotel in Kakamega where ODM-elected legislators participated in a session convened by top UDA officials.<\/p>\n
“Our members are being approached to facilitate and participate in the upcoming UDA grassroots elections under the false pretext that UDA and ODM are in a political cooperation agreement,” Osotsi stated in a hard-hitting statement released on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He disclosed that UDA operatives have gone further to form a regional presidential caucus composed of ODM members, which he said violates both the Political Parties Act and the ODM constitution.<\/p>\n
The deputy party leader termed UDA’s actions as regrettable and in bad faith, since it follows the demise of the founding party leader, Raila Odinga.<\/p>\n
Osotsi warned that the developments amount to a hostile takeover and a \u201cgrand scheme that includes sustained threats of violence and expulsion directed at several senior ODM officials who have dared to speak out against the premature and disrespectful actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Osotsi argued that there is no legally binding agreement between UDA and ODM at national and grassroots levels to anchor the ongoing political overreach by the UDA party,” Osotsi emphasized.<\/p>\n
The deputy party leader stated that what exists is merely the 10-point reform package signed following the mid-2024 Gen Z uprising. He accused UDA of attempting to illegally exploit ODM’s structures built over two decades.<\/p>\n
“It should be understood that currently ODM is a distinct political party, and it is not an appendage to the UDA party. The broad-based arrangement does not provide for how the two parties will handle the 2027 elections going forward,” Osotsi declared.<\/p>\n
He urged party members to resist the infiltration attempts, terming them illegal acts.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has sounded the alarm over what it describes as a systematic infiltration of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[7574,7575,80,2204,780],"class_list":{"0":"post-11003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kenya","8":"tag-broad-based-government","9":"tag-grassroots-mobilisation","10":"tag-kenya","11":"tag-odm","12":"tag-uda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}