Sakaja confirms ongoing talks to join ODM party

According to Sakaja, he is currently consulting with relevant parties to make a well-informed decision.

He also noted that the transition has been simmering owing to his relationship with the party founder, the late Raila Odinga, and it had always been his wish that he joins ODM.

"There has been that call. Some officials and party members have said that they want me to move to their party," he intimated during an interview with Radio Citizen on Wednesday.  

"In October, we will be marking one year since Raila left us and we were very close, he was like my father, and he also wanted that (to join). We were in touch a lot before his death."

Governor Sakaja, however, stated that no confirmation has been made but will heed the resolve of his supporters.

"There is no official date for when we will leave UDA, but the call is there. It is something I am observing, we must also look at what people are saying. If that's what they want then I am their employee," he said.

His sentiment comes a day after the Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP) leader Rigathi Gachagua scoffed at UDA's prominence in Nairobi, saying that President William Ruto is losing all his essential soldiers, including Governor Sakaja.

"UDA is done. I hear Sakaja wants to move to ODM led by Oburu. We wish you the best. And even the ODM has nothing. It is a shell," Gachagua noted.

He was receiving a faction of political leaders and officials who had defected from UDA, Jubilee and other parties, among them Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan.