The brutal killing of Albert Ojwang, a young Gen-Z activist, has once again laid bare the hollow promises and self-serving nature of Kenya’s political elite, particularly the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) led by Raila Odinga and his loyal lieutenant, Edwin Sifuna.
The deafening silence from ODM’s top brass in the wake of this senseless extrajudicial killing is not just a betrayal of the victim’s family but a damning indictment of a party that has long postured as the voice of the oppressed.
Instead of standing up for justice, ODM’s leaders have revealed themselves as tumbocrats, politicians whose only loyalty is to their own stomachs, willing to trade principles for power.
When ODM signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) on March 7, 2025, Nairobi Senator and ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna stood at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, boldly declaring that he held the “marking scheme” for the coalition agreement. He vowed that ODM would exit the so-called “broad-based government” if the administration failed to address core issues, explicitly naming abductions and extrajudicial killings as non-negotiable red lines.
Yet, in the face of Albert Ojwang’s killing, Sifuna’s words ring hollow. Where is the fiery condemnation? Where is the promised exit from a government that continues to oversee such atrocities? The silence is deafening, and it speaks volumes about Sifuna’s true priorities.
Raila Odinga, the self-styled “Ayatollah of Opoda,” has not uttered a single word of condolence for Ojwang’s family. His brainwashed sycophants, local MCAs, MPs, and even governors, have followed suit, waiting for their leader’s signal like programmed robots. This is not leadership; it is cowardice dressed in political expediency.
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The ODM faithful, once champions of reform, have been reduced to spineless opportunists, tethered to Raila’s whims. Their inaction is a betrayal worse than the government’s, for while the state’s failures are expected, ODM’s complicity shatters the illusion of an opposition that cares for the common Kenyan.
The hypocrisy is staggering. Sifuna, who once railed against Ruto’s “failing state,” now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the same administration he criticized, reading out a 10-point deal with UDA’s Hassan Omar as if it were a sacred covenant. His earlier defiance, has been replaced by a meek acceptance of the status quo. The same man who warned that ODM would not back Ruto in 2027 unless the government delivered on its promises now seems content to let abductions and killings slide, as long as his party’s slice of the political pie remains secure.
This is the essence of a tumbocrat, preaching justice in public while dining with oppressors in private.
Raila, too, has shown his true colors. His call for unity within ODM, was less about principle and more about consolidating his grip on power. When MP Peter Kaluma hinted at removing Sifuna for criticizing the broad-based government, Raila’s response was not to defend his secretary-general but to urge calm, effectively muzzling dissent within his ranks.
This is a man who has built a career on the backs of Kenya’s downtrodden, yet when a young life is snuffed out, he and his acolytes prepare only for the inevitable funeral spectacle.
Soon, we will see the political celebrities of Luo Nyanza descend on Ojwang’s burial, shedding crocodile tears and hurling empty promises. “No stone will remain unturned,” they will declare, as they always do, before retreating to their comfortable offices, leaving the family hanging dry.
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Perhaps the most galling prospect is the likelihood of someone like Peter Kaluma, an ODM stalwart, standing before Ojwang’s grieving family to apologize, not for the government’s actions, but to it. In true tumbocratic fashion, he might even chastise the slain Gen-Z activist for lacking “discipline and decorum” in challenging the “blood-based government.”
Such is the moral bankruptcy of ODM’s leadership, where loyalty to power trumps loyalty to the people.
The tragedy of Albert Ojwang’s death underscores a bitter truth: the only trustworthy politician is a dead one. The living, it seems, are too busy chasing power, brokering deals, and protecting their own interests to care about the blood spilled on Kenya’s streets. Raila Odinga and Edwin Sifuna, with their empty rhetoric and calculated silence, are not just complicit, they are worse than the government they claim to hold accountable.
They are conmen who have sold their souls for a seat at the table, leaving the likes of Ojwang’s family to bear the cost of their betrayal.
ODM’s silence is a stark contrast to the vocal outrage they would have unleashed had they not joined Ruto’s government. One user poignantly remarked, “If ODM were not in the so-called Broad Based Government, by now, they would have released statements rebuking the killing of Albert Ojwang and demanding accountability.” The fact that they haven’t speaks to the rot within a party that once stood for something but now stands only for itself.
Kenyans deserve better. Albert Ojwang deserved better. Until ODM’s leaders break free from their tumbocratic trance and honor their own “marking scheme,” they will remain not just a disappointment, but a danger to the very people they claim to represent.
