The attempted palace coup within the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has hit a judicial brick wall.

In a dramatic turn of events, the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) has issued an immediate stay order, halting the removal of Edwin Sifuna as the party’s Secretary-General. The ruling freezes the resolution passed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) on February 11, which sought to purge the outspoken Nairobi Senator from the party’s engine room. This legal intervention throws the party’s internal restructuring into chaos and exposes the deep factional rifts threatening to tear the orange outfit apart.

The Tribunal Intervenes

Sifuna, a lawyer by trade and a street-fighter by nature, wasted no time in challenging what he termed an "irregular and vindictive" process. The Tribunal’s decision to bar the Registrar of Political Parties from gazetting the change is a critical tactical victory. It effectively keeps Sifuna in office, with full powers, while the substantive case is heard. For his detractors within the party, who thought the deed was done, this is a humiliating procedural defeat.

“You cannot govern a party of democracy with the tactics of a dictatorship,” a Sifuna ally remarked outside the courtroom. The stay order suggests that the NEC may have bypassed critical due process steps in their haste to decapitate the party secretariat.

• The Internal War: This legal battle is merely a symptom of a larger disease. ODM is grappling with an identity crisis and a succession battle. Sifuna has become a lightning rod for those agitating for a generational change versus the old guard protecting entrenched interests.
• The Gazettement Block: By stopping the official publication of his removal, the court has prevented the creation of a fait accompli. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, and Sifuna still holds the keys to Chungwa House.

A Party in Limbo

The standoff leaves ODM in a precarious position. It technically has a Secretary-General whom the executive committee has fired but the courts have reinstated. This paralysis could not come at a worse time, with grassroots elections looming and rivals encircling.

Sifuna lives to fight another day, but the knives are still out. The courtroom has bought him time, but it cannot buy him loyalty.