This is a Nairobi Post editorial.
One year after the death of Raila Odinga, the Orange Democratic Movement is discovering what many parties built around a single towering figure eventually learn: loyalty to a leader is not the same thing as a plan for the future.
The signs of strain are everywhere. Winnie Odinga has declared her bid for the Nairobi Senate seat. Raila Odinga Junior has backed Lang’ata MP Jalang’o for the same position. Party leader Oburu Odinga’s recent absence fuelled weeks of speculation before his first public appearance this week. Meanwhile Senator Edwin Sifuna’s Linda Mwananchi movement is going through the formal process of becoming a renamed party.
Names are not a manifesto
None of these developments is illegitimate. Members of political families have every right to seek office, and competition is healthy. But the debate has so far focused on succession – who carries the name, who controls the base – rather than on what the party stands for in 2027.
ODM’s supporters, and Kenyans more broadly, deserve to hear its answers on the cost of living, devolution, jobs for young people and accountability in public spending. A party that cannot articulate those answers will struggle to hold its coalition together, whichever name is on the ballot.
Let the rules decide
The electoral commission’s timetable now requires parties to submit certified nomination rules by early November. That is an opportunity. Transparent primaries, run on clean membership registers and published rules, would allow the party’s internal contests to be settled by members rather than by endorsements.
Raila Odinga’s legacy was built on the argument that institutions matter more than individuals. The best tribute his party can pay him is to prove it.
