ODM Linda Mwananchi faction vows to join Gen Zs on June 25 protest anniversary

The simmering battle for the soul of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is taking a new turn after leaders allied to the party’s Linda Mwananchi faction announced they will join Gen Z protesters during the anniversary of the historic June demonstrations.

Godfrey Osotsi, the Vihiga Senator, declared that the faction; fronted by Edwin Sifuna and Babu Owino, will stand in solidarity with young Kenyans when they mark the anniversary of the June 25 protests that shook the country last year.

The protests, largely driven by young people in the country, erupted under the banner #RejectFinanceBill2024, with demonstrators protesting high taxes, the rising cost of living, corruption and what they termed poor governance.

Speaking during a meeting where the Linda Mwananchi brigade released its own assessment of the controversial 10-point agenda that brought ODM and the ruling alliance together, Osotsi accused the government of failing to implement key reforms and attempting to silence dissent.

“Even today in the morning, they wanted to disrupt this assembly by bringing goons,” Osotsi claimed during the event. “You have seen what they have done at our meetings. We cannot even talk about implementation because even now this government is relying on goons to deal with political opponents.”

He went further, drawing a dramatic comparison with the Caribbean nation of Haiti, warning that tolerating political violence could lead to deeper instability.

“This is how Haiti started and now Haiti is a big problem,” he said. “So we are saying on this one, nothing has been done, and this team is going to join the Gen Zs during the June anniversary.”

The announcement highlights growing divisions within ODM over the party’s cooperation framework with President William Ruto’s administration.

The arrangement, anchored on a 10-point agenda, was meant to guide cooperation between sections of ODM and the government on issues such as economic reforms, governance, and national unity.

However, critics within the party now claim the agreement has yielded little tangible progress.

During the same event, ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna delivered a scathing evaluation of the agreement’s performance.

On a scale of 1 to 10, Sifuna said he would rate the implementation at just one point.

“That’s only 10 per cent,” he said bluntly. “You can see our reasons for that assessment in our report titled The Ten Point Lies. What we witnessed yesterday was a shameful charade meant to hoodwink the public that the MoU had been implemented.”

His remarks came just a day after President Ruto and Siaya Senator Oburu Odinga received a progress report on the same agenda, a move that appears to have further inflamed internal disagreements within ODM ranks.