Senator James Orengo has revealed through an interview with Oga Obinna TV the untold story of how ODM entered Ruto's broad-based government — no formal agreement, a frail Raila, political opportunists, and the eventual firing of Sifuna. Here is the full account as per his words ...
In what is being described as one of the most explosive political revelations of 2026, veteran politician and Siaya Senator James Orengo has pulled back the curtain on the real story behind ODM's entry into President William Ruto's broad-based government — and what he has revealed is a tale of political opportunism, personal betrayal, a frail and diminished Raila Odinga, and a party legacy that was quietly dismantled not by its enemies, but by its own insiders.
According to Orengo, the narrative that has been carefully constructed and presented to the Kenyan public — that ODM formally and collectively agreed to join Ruto's broad-based government as a unified party — is simply not true. And the real story, he says, is far more disturbing.
The Bombshell Revelation: There Was Never a Formal Agreement
At the very foundation of Orengo's account is a fact that fundamentally undermines the legitimacy of ODM's presence in the Ruto administration.
There was no formal agreement between President William Ruto and Raila Odinga on how to form the broad-based government.
Not a signed document. Not a negotiated framework. Not a party resolution passed through ODM's official structures. Nothing.
What existed instead, according to Orengo, was an informal, unilateral, and deeply self-interested set of individual negotiations conducted by a group of ODM politicians who saw a window of opportunity opening — and rushed through it before anyone could stop them.
The Moment Everything Changed: Raila's Health and the Scramble for Positions
To understand how ODM ended up where it is today, Orengo takes us back to the critical period when Raila Odinga's health began to deteriorate significantly.
As news of Raila's declining health spread within the party's inner circles, a group of senior ODM politicians made a cold, calculated assessment of the political landscape. They concluded that Raila — the man who had been the singular unifying force holding ODM together for decades — was running out of strength. His grip on the party, his ability to reward loyalty and punish defiance, was weakening.
And in that moment of perceived vulnerability, they acted — not in the interest of ODM, not in the interest of the party faithful who had marched, voted, and sacrificed for the orange wave across multiple election cycles — but in their own personal interest.
"Walijua Raila ameisha nguvu na hakuna kitu angefanya," Orengo revealed — loosely translated: they knew Raila had run out of strength and there was nothing he could do.
One by one, senior ODM figures — among them John Mbadi, Wycliffe Oparanya, and Hassan Joho — rushed to President Ruto and individually negotiated government positions for themselves. They did not go as ODM. They did not carry a party mandate. They did not consult the membership. They went as individuals, securing their own futures while Raila lay weakened.
Raila Returns to Find His House Has Been Rearranged Without Him
The betrayal was compounded by the timing. When Raila Odinga returned from abroad, he came back to a political reality that had been fundamentally altered in his absence — without his knowledge, without his consent, and without any regard for the party structures he had spent a lifetime building.
He found that Mbadi, Oparanya, Joho, and others had already agreed with Ruto to effectively hand the party over to the broad-based government arrangement. The deal had been done. The positions had been allocated. ODM's opposition identity had been surrendered — and Raila had not been in the room when it happened.
The "Donating Experts" Strategy: Damage Control From a Weakened Leader
Faced with an irreversible situation and desperate to hold what remained of ODM together, Raila opted for a carefully worded damage control strategy. He began referring to the politicians who had joined the Ruto government as "DONATING EXPERTS" — framing their entry into the administration not as a political capitulation or a betrayal of the opposition, but as a patriotic contribution of skilled individuals to national service.
It was, by Orengo's account, a face-saving exercise born out of political necessity rather than genuine conviction. Raila knew that openly condemning the move would split ODM down the middle. ODM was his legacy — the party he had fought for, gone to prison for, and dedicated his political life to building. He was not willing to preside over its public implosion.
And so the "donating experts" framing was deployed — a linguistic shield designed to protect both the party's image and Raila's dignity in an impossible situation.
Sifuna Refused to Play Along — and Raila Backed Him
Not everyone in ODM was willing to go along with the charade. ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna refused to endorse the broad-based government arrangement and made his opposition publicly and unapologetically known.
His refusal immediately put him on a collision course with the "experts" — those who had negotiated their way into the Ruto administration and now had a vested interest in silencing any internal dissent that might complicate their newly acquired positions.
The "experts" wanted Sifuna out. They pushed hard for his removal from the party, seeking to eliminate the most visible and vocal voice of opposition within ODM's own structures.
But here is where Raila's moral courage — even in his most physically diminished state — revealed itself most clearly.
Raila stood firmly with Sifuna. He declared, unequivocally, that Sifuna had every right to air his opinion. In doing so, Raila was not simply defending one man — he was defending the fundamental principle that ODM remained an opposition party with the right to dissent, to debate, and to hold the government to account.
"Raila stood firm and said Sifuna was right," Orengo confirmed.
For a period, the situation became one of delicate and exhausting internal mediation — with Raila positioned in the middle, trying to manage the escalating tension between Sifuna and the "experts", preventing an all-out civil war within ODM's leadership ranks while his own health continued to decline.
Raila Dies — and the Political Brokers Switch Allegiances Overnight
Then came the moment that changed everything irrevocably.
Raila Odinga died.
And with the one man who had held the competing factions in check now gone, the political brokers who had spent years building their careers on the back of his name, his sacrifices, and his political capital made their final move.
They transferred their loyalty from Raila to Ruto — and wasted no time in doing what they had wanted to do for months.
Sifuna was fired.
The man whom Raila had defended, the man whom Raila had said was right, the man who had refused to compromise ODM's opposition identity — was removed from his position the moment the protective hand of Raila Odinga was no longer there to shield him.
It was, in Orengo's telling, the final and most damning act in a long story of political betrayal — the moment when the mask came off entirely and ODM's new power brokers revealed exactly where their loyalties had always truly lain.
The Inconvenient Truth They Cannot Answer: Where Is the Agreement?
Orengo's most devastating challenge to ODM's current leadership is also his simplest — and it is one that, to date, has gone completely unanswered.
Show us the formal agreement.
Show Kenyans the document. Show them the signed framework. Show them the party resolution, the minutes of the meeting, the official record of ODM collectively deciding — as a party — to enter Ruto's broad-based government.
"To date, they cannot show you any formal agreement between ODM and UDA to form the broad-based government," Orengo stated flatly.
Because no such document exists. The ODM politicians who joined the Ruto administration went to the government at will — as individuals, not as ODM. It was not a party decision. And critically, according to Orengo, it was not Raila's wish.
The 2027 Question: Ruto as ODM's Candidate?
Perhaps the most politically explosive dimension of Orengo's account concerns the implications for the 2027 General Election.
Raila Odinga's stated position — even as he navigated the impossible internal dynamics of his final months — was clear: ODM should field its own presidential candidate in 2027, because ODM is a big party with its own identity, its own membership, and its own political mandate.
But the "experts" — those same individuals who rushed to Ruto while Raila was weakened, who fired Sifuna the moment Raila died, and who have yet to produce a single piece of paper formalising ODM's arrangement with UDA — have now delivered their answer to Raila's position.
The ODM presidential candidate for 2027, they say, will be William Ruto of UDA.
It is a conclusion that, in Orengo's view, represents the complete and total capture of ODM by political opportunists who were never acting in the party's interest — and never in the interest of the millions of ODM supporters across Kenya who have invested their hopes, their votes, and their trust in the orange movement for over two decades.
What This Means for Kenyan Politics
Orengo's account raises questions that go far beyond internal ODM politics. They cut to the very heart of how Kenya's political parties operate, how loyalty is bought and sold, and what happens to opposition politics when its most towering figure is no longer present to hold the line.
For ODM supporters, the story Orengo tells is one of grief compounded by betrayal — a party that survived prison, tear gas, election violence, and decades of state repression, only to be quietly dismantled from within by the very people who owed it the most.
For Kenyan democracy more broadly, the absence of a formal, documented, accountable agreement between ODM and the Ruto administration raises serious questions about transparency, party governance, and the integrity of the broad-based government itself.
And for 2027, Orengo's revelations set the stage for what promises to be one of the most consequential and bitterly contested political battles in Kenya's modern history — the fight for the soul of ODM, and the fight to determine whether Raila Odinga's legacy will be honoured or permanently erased.