Millie Odhiambo Reveals How Her Effort to Bring Sifuna Back to ODM Failed After Several Attempts

Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo has revealed some members of the Orange Democratic Movement actively pushed Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna and other leaders out of the party, a decision she tried hard to reverse and now regards as a costly mistake.

In an interview on the In Conversation with Chaxy podcast, the National Assembly Minority Whip said she held several meetings aimed at keeping Sifuna inside ODM. “I tried a lot of times to bring Sifuna back and I wish he had stayed.,” she said. ”

Odhiambo argued that the broad-based government would be facing a much weaker challenge today if Sifuna had remained in the party. Instead, the ouster has elevated him into a stronger national opposition figure than many in ODM expected.

Once dismissed as ODM’s Secretary General, Sifuna used the fallout to build the Linda Mwananchi Movement and is now openly positioning himself for a presidential run in 2027 under the new outfit.

A similar pattern has played out with Embakasi East MP Babu Owino. Like Sifuna, Owino found himself on the wrong side of internal party battles after Raila Odinga’s death. Both men have since emerged as more potent opposition voices outside ODM than they were while still inside the party. Their combined presence has given the anti-broad-based camp greater visibility and energy than party leaders who pushed them out appear to have anticipated.

Odhiambo had previously warned that treating Sifuna as a “passing cloud” was a miscalculation. while on the interview, she revealed She was labelled a fence-sitter for opposing the push against Sifuna. She said the senator’s removal only accelerated his rise rather than diminishing it.

While she remains in ODM and continues to serve as Minority Whip, Odhiambo maintains the party would have been better served by allowing Sifuna to stay and decide his own path. Forcing him out, she said, created unnecessary rival who now commands significant attention ahead of the next election election.

Meanwhile, the remarks underline the deepening fractures within ODM as the party prepares for 2027 general elections.

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