The veil of secrecy over the Orange Democratic Movement’s implosion has been ripped away. In a bombshell revelation that confirms the worst fears of the party’s purists, Deputy Party Leader Godfrey Osotsi has detailed a clandestine night meeting between ODM trustees and President William Ruto at State House—a meeting that sealed the fate of Edwin Sifuna.

Osotsi’s allegations paint a picture of a party that has been "remote-controlled" from the very seat of power it claims to oppose. Speaking with the fury of a man who has witnessed a betrayal, the Vihiga Senator disclosed that the decision to oust Sifuna was not made in the party headquarters at Chungwa House, but in the plush, compromised surroundings of the President’s residence. "They went at night," Osotsi charged, invoking the classic Kenyan metaphor for political treachery.

The Timeline of a Takeover

The sequence of events, as laid out by Osotsi, reveals a calculated ambush. It began with a seemingly innocuous phone call from Gladys Wanga on Friday, February 6. This escalated to a meeting with Oburu Oginga, the family patriarch and party guardian. But the true twist of the knife came when a scheduled consultation turned into a pilgrimage to State House. According to Osotsi, Oburu and senior officials met with Ruto shortly before the Mombasa NEC meeting, receiving what many believe were the "marching orders" to decapitate the party’s radical wing.

This revelation explains the sudden confidence of the anti-Sifuna faction. They were not acting on party discipline; they were acting on presidential assurance. Osotsi’s refusal to attend the Mombasa NEC meeting—along with Sifuna—was an act of protest against this external interference. "We cannot validate a process that was cooked in State House," he stated, effectively delegitimizing the entire ouster process.

• The Hostile Takeover: Osotsi described the events as an "attempted takeover" of the party. By aligning the party’s disciplinary organs with the desires of the ruling regime, the current leadership risks turning ODM into a mere extension of the government—a "UDA-lite" that offers no real alternative to the voters.
• The Oburu Factor: The implication of Oburu Oginga is particularly damaging. As the custodian of the Odinga legacy, his alleged late-night dalliance with Ruto is seen by the Sifuna camp as a desecration of the struggle. It suggests that the family interests have now merged with the state interests, leaving the ideological foot soldiers like Sifuna out in the cold.

The Resistance Begins

Osotsi’s exposé is a rallying cry for the resistance within ODM. By bringing the State House meeting into the light, he is forcing the members to choose: are they loyal to the party constitution, or are they subjects of a shadow coalition? The "State House Night" will likely go down in history as the moment the soul of ODM was placed on the auction block. The question remains: is there anyone left with the capital—and the courage—to buy it back?