‘Who ate Uhuru’s money?’ Junet, Sifuna clash over Raila’s 2022 election loss as ODM implodes

The long-simmering cracks within the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) have burst into the open, with senior party officials trading explosive accusations over the handling of campaign funds during Raila Odinga’s failed 2022 presidential bid, an ugly public fallout that underscores the party’s deepening crisis following Raila’s death in 2025.

At the centre of the storm are ODM Secretary General and Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, and the party’s Director of Elections and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, whose war of words has dragged former President Uhuru Kenyatta and his family into the fray, reopening painful questions about what went wrong in 2022.

Speaking on Saturday during the burial of Embakasi North MP James Gakuya’s mother, Sifuna launched a blistering attack on Junet, accusing him of hypocrisy and misusing funds donated by Uhuru to support Raila’s campaign.

In a fiery address, Sifuna reminded ODM supporters that Raila recorded his strongest-ever performance in the Mt. Kenya region in 2022, garnering over one million votes; a feat he attributed in large part to Uhuru’s backing.

Sifuna openly thanked the former President for bankrolling the campaign, saying much of the money ODM used came directly from Uhuru.

He directly accused Junet of now pretending that Uhuru’s money was “dirty”, despite having benefited from it at the time.

“Lazima nitoe shukrani…unajua watu wengi wamesahau Mlima Kenya hii, kwa mara ya kwanza, Raila Amollo Odinga alizoa kura zaidi ya milioni moja. Na ndio maana mliona nikipigia Uhuru Kenyatta asante…kwa sababu alitusaidia. Mlitusukuma, lakini alitusaidia. Wengine walikula pesa ya Uhuru Kenyatta sasawa. Mim najua kama katibu mkuu, pesa nyingi ambayo tulifanyia campaign ilikuwa inatoka kwa Uhuru Kenyatta; alitusupport kwa hali na mali,” said Sifuna.

“Lakini sasa sai kuna mshenzi mmoja ametambua kwamba kuna ubaya wa pesa ya Uhuru Kenyatta. Nataka niulize Junet, pesa ya Uhuru ilianza kuwa mbaya siku gani? Siku ile ulikuwa unachukua hiyo pesa…na ata yote hukuleta kwa chama, ingine ulikula pekee yako na mabibi yako. Siku ile tutaanza audit ya uchaguzi wa 2022, ni vizuri umeanzisha hiyo debate kila mtu aseme ile kazi alifanya.”

Sifuna went ahead to accuse Junet of pocketing campaign funds instead of paying agents, leading to Raila’s defeat in key battlegrounds.

He alleged that agents were abandoned on election day, allowing rivals to sal to victory, and went as far as to claim that but for Junet’s actions, ODM would be in government today.

The outspoken lawmaker also dismissed suggestions that he could be disciplined or expelled from the party, insisting that ODM’s position remains unchanged: that Raila never endorsed President William Ruto for re-election in 2027.

“Wewe (Junet) ulikuwa unachukua pesa ya Uhuru badala ulipe agents, ukawacha hawa wakatupiga 10-nil, sai tunalia huko nje. Kama sio wewe Junet, tungekuwa kwa serikali. So, mimi huwezi kunitisha bwana! Wanasema Nairobi, ukipata sponsor mpya, usianze kutukana yule alikutoa kwa bedsitter,” Sifuna stated.

"Hakuna mtu ambaye ako na uwezo wa kunifukuza ndani ya chama cha ODM. Sisi ndani ya ODM tunaamini ile kitu Baba (Raila) alituambia. Hakuna siku Baba alituambia tuunge mkono William Ruto 2027, hakuna! Na kwa sababu watu wamekuwa wakisemazile vitu Baba aliwambia, huu mwaka ata mimi nataka kusema vitu Baba aliniambia. Baba aliniambia Kasongo (Ruto) 2027 home!”

Junet, however, fired back swiftly with a detailed and equally damning response, shifting blame squarely to Uhuru’s inner circle, and even partly to Sifuna himself.

In a statement posted on social media, Junet accused Sifuna of “moonlighting” for Uhuru within ODM and rejected claims that he was responsible for the failure to deploy or pay election agents in 2022.

According to Junet, the funds meant for agents were allegedly released by Uhuru to his brother, Muhoho Kenyatta, who then appointed a man identified as Peter Mburu to oversee recruitment and payments.

Junet claimed Mburu presented himself as an IT expert capable of detecting and preventing electoral manipulation by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), but that no agents were ultimately procured; neither in Mt Kenya nor in Raila’s stronghold of Luo Nyanza.

He alleged that Muhoho operated from a highly restricted office in Westlands, so secretive that even Raila himself could not freely access it.

From this office, Junet said, the handling of agents’ payments and campaign logistics was supposedly coordinated.

Junet strongly rejected accusations of betrayal, arguing that Raila would never have appointed him Leader of Minority in the National Assembly had he lost the former ODM boss’s trust.

“These are facts, not conjecture. I challenge Uhuru Kenyatta and Muhoho Kenyatta to publicly deny these facts. The fact is once they took charge, they never procured any agents for Hon. Raila Odinga, not in Mt. Kenya and not in Luo Nyanza. It was a long con game,” wrote Junet.

“Let the record also be set straight: Hon. Raila Odinga would have had no reason whatsoever to appoint me — Hon. Junet Mohammed — as the Leader of Minority in the National Assembly if I had truly betrayed him. For years, I handled all the delicate assignments from our late dear Party Leader with fidelity and diligence.”

He further pointed to Mburu’s continued proximity to Uhuru, noting that he recently travelled to Nigeria with Uhuru and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka as evidence that Mburu remains central to the former president’s political operations.

“I now call upon Uhuru Kenyatta, Muhoho Kenyatta, Peter Mburu, and Senator Edwin Sifuna to come clean,” Junet said, insisting that Kenyans deserve the truth about who controlled, mishandled, or consumed, the agents’ money.

The public spat has laid bare the extent of ODM’s internal disarray in the post-Raila era. Once held together by the towering authority of its founder, the party is now grappling with leadership struggles, unresolved grievances from the 2022 election, and competing power centres that are increasingly comfortable fighting in the open.