ODM Roars Back: Sifuna Rules Out Coalition as Babu Owino Emerges Raila’s Heir in Bondo

Thousands of mourners converged at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University in Bondo on October 19, 2025, for a state funeral that was far more than a farewell—it was a defining moment in Kenya’s political history. The late former Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga, a man who reshaped the country’s democratic journey, was laid to rest in a ceremony attended by world leaders, freedom icons, diplomats, and ordinary Kenyans who considered him the people’s champion.

President William Ruto, in a rare gesture of political sobriety, led the state delegation and paid tribute to Raila’s lifelong service to Kenya. But while the funeral was wrapped in national unity and ceremonial protocol, the political tension was unmistakable.

ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna took the podium and sent a message that electrified the crowd and stunned power brokers in Nairobi. He firmly ruled out any possibility of a political merger or cooperation between ODM and the ruling UDA party ahead of 2027.

His remarks reopened the political battlefield even before Raila’s burial and anchored ODM’s identity as a liberation movement that refuses to fold.

But perhaps the most telling sign of the party’s evolving future came from the chants that swept across the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University like a political storm: “Babu! Babu! Babu!”

Embakasi East MP Babu Owino, long dismissed by the establishment as a political disruptor, emerged unmistakably as the grassroots favorite to inherit the Raila torch. The people were not whispering—they were shouting their choice. In that moment, amidst grief and history, a new political era unofficially launched.

Raila Odinga may have been laid to rest, but the political fire he ignited continues to burn—louder, sharper, and unmistakably charged toward the 2027 elections. The battle lines are drawn, and Bondo just sent a message to State House: the resistance is not dead—it’s reorganizing.