Ruth Odinga
Kisumu Women Representative Ruth Odinga has come out to defend ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna following his claims that recent ODM Linda Ground rallies are being financed by undisclosed benefactors.
In a statement on Thursday, Ruth questioned why Sifuna’s remarks have attracted sharp criticism and personal attacks, yet the substantive issues he raised remain unanswered.
The Kisumu Women Rep argued that as a signatory to the party’s accounts, Sifuna is well within his mandate to question the source of funds used to bankroll large-scale political activities.
“As a signatory to the ODM account, if he questions where all the money for choppers, big tents, and ODM-branded t-shirts and caps in the ‘Linda Ground’ conventions are coming from, why should anyone abuse him? He admitted on national TV that the ODM Party has not spent any coin on the campaigns, which run into millions of shillings.
“Those with the answers, why can’t you provide them? Are governors funding the campaigns? Are MPs doing it from the CDF kitty? Did we get a philanthropist that a Party SG is not aware of who is funding the clearly expensive public fora? And what is in it for the ‘philanthropist’? she posed.
Odinga cited Sifuna’s assertion that the government owes ODM Sh12 billion in political party funding, and argued that withholding the funds allows external actors to retain control over party activities, including who is invited to speak at rallies and what messages are permitted.
Odinga also linked the controversy to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between President William Ruto and the late Raila Odinga, signed in March 2025.
She raised concerns about the possibility of President Ruto honouring the pre-election agreement despite failing to fulfil the UDA-ODM MoU signed in 2025.
“If the MoU has not been honored, with just less than 30 days to its expiry, what is so ‘treasonous’ in Sifuna publicly declaring it ‘dead’? And for the ‘Tutam’ choir members in ODM, if President Ruto does not honor an agreement he signed with a man he said helped him steady a ship called Kenya that was sinking following the Gen-Z protests, how sure are you that he will honor the pre-election pact you are all talking about? Will he use a different signature?” Odinga questioned.
