From Raila’s foot soldier to ODM outcast: The rise and fall of Edwin Sifuna

It has been eight years of a head-spinning, high-profile political career, the bulk of it spent close to the side of an enigmatic opposition leader, the late Raila Odinga. For Edwin Sifuna, the end could not have been more predictable.

Like a pre-determined eventuality, Sifuna fell on Wednesday, a victim of an inevitable fallout that followed the demise of Raila.

Sifuna was captured crying on the India flight that was dispatched to pick Raila's body, sorrow and pain written on his face. Raila's sudden death spelt many things to many around him, and Sifuna, the fiery Secretary General of Raila’s party, became a dead man walking.

Born in Kakamega County, Edwin Watenya Sifuna has had a meteoric rise in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, where he has served for 10 years, first as acting Secretary General and eight years later as the substantive Secretary General.

It began with a dramatic event in June 2016, when Sifuna stormed the ODM party offices in Nairobi, declaring himself the Secretary General of the party, against the then Secretary General Ababu Namwamba.

“We are taking a position that has been vacant. That is why we are here today. From today, I am the Secretary General of ODM,” said Sifuna at the time.

“There’s something called absence without leave, even in military parlance. A junior officer has the right to relieve his commander of his command, even a general, if he deserts his post.”

In 2017, Sifuna unsuccessfully ran for the ODM party ticket in the Kanduyi Parliamentary by-election, before shifting his sights to Nairobi city politics, where he also lost to Johnson Sakaja in the Nairobi Senatorial race the same year.

A confidant, straight shooter and trusted foot soldier of the former ODM party leader, the late Raila, Sifuna would then be elected substantive ODM Secretary General in 2018 during the party’s National Delegates Convention (NDC) at the Kasarani Gymnasium in Nairobi.

Sifuna has since held the position of ODM Secretary General for close to eight years before his removal.

Five years after his failed stab at the Senate, Sifuna clinched the Nairobi Senator position with a resounding win in the 2022 General Election. He also serves as the Deputy Minority Whip of the Senate.

However, the 44-year-old firebrand legislator’s dwindling fortunes in the 20-year-old party came after the handshake between President William Ruto and the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in 2024 at the height of the Gen Z-led protests, which saw five ODM stalwarts appointed to Cabinet.

Sifuna would half-heartedly attend the signing of the ODM-UDA deal in March last year on the implementation of the NADCO and the agreed 10-point agenda.

And before the ink could dry on the agreement, Sifuna denounced the document as an act of political conmanship.

“I don’t recognise this thing called broad-based,” he said at the time.

His then party leader, Raila Odinga, would occasionally defend him, emphasising the need for democracy in ODM when calls for his removal grew louder.

“Sifuna is the mouthpiece of the party. Kila mtu aongee,” Odinga said in July 25, 2025 in Kakamega when calls for his removal grew louder.

Things have, however, been more complicated for the Nairobi Senator after the death of Raila in October last year, with the line drawn in the sand between him and the government-backed proponents of the broad-based government. The differences played out during Raila’s burial in Bondo, Siaya County.

“Baba left us in broad-based,” said ODM Chairperson Gladys Wanga then.

Sifuna, on his part, said: “Raila’s last instruction was for us to be in ODM.”

The latest battlefront between Sifuna and his party leadership was embodied in the Linda Ground rallies captained by Oburu and the Linda Mwananchi one launched by the rebel youthful team within the party.

Remarks by the former ODM chairperson, now Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi last week calling for Sifuna’s immediate removal were the clearest indication yet that his die was cast.

“If someone does not want to agree with ODM policies, that person should be left to go so that we know how many people he is leaving with,” Mbadi said.

The sentiments culminated with events in Mombasa on Wednesday, which saw Sifuna kicked out and replaced by Busia Woman Representative Catherine Omanyo.

 Sifuna is yet to comment formally about his removal but has left a cryptic message on his social media platforms hinting at an upcoming Linda Mwananchi rally in Kitengela, Kajiado County.

“It is not anybody’s birthright to be an SG in ODM. It is okay I will still be a member of ODM,” stated Sifuna previously.