ODM’s Generational Rift Explodes as Babu Owino Calls for Old Guard Exit

The long-simmering generational conflict within the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has burst into the open, with Embakasi East MP Babu Owino launching his most direct challenge yet to the party’s veteran leadership.

Speaking at a youth forum, Owino openly called for the retirement of ODM’s old guard, accusing senior figures of abandoning the party’s reformist ideals in exchange for proximity to power and access to government tenders.

“They are sitting on the future,” Owino said. “We cannot protect Baba’s legacy with the same people who failed him in 2022.”

The remarks mark a decisive escalation—from internal grumbling to open rebellion—and signal that ODM’s internal power struggle is entering a dangerous new phase.

A Legacy Under Contest

At the centre of Owino’s critique is the legacy of Raila Odinga, the party’s founding leader and political anchor for nearly two decades. For younger ODM politicians, Raila’s legacy represents resistance, reform, and generational sacrifice. For the old guard, it is a political inheritance to be managed—often through compromise with the state.

Owino argues that this compromise has crossed into political capture, eroding ODM’s identity as an opposition movement and blurring the line between government and dissent.

“The party cannot claim to stand for the people while its leaders benefit from the system they are supposed to challenge,” said a youth leader aligned with Owino.

The “Young Turks” Strategy

Beyond rhetoric, Owino is now actively mobilising a “Young Turks” faction within ODM—an organised bloc of younger MPs, MCAs, and grassroots delegates determined to wrest control of party structures from entrenched power brokers.

Their immediate target is the National Delegates Conference (NDC), where control of key party organs—including the National Executive Council—can be decided. Insiders say the youth faction is quietly mapping delegate numbers, county by county, in preparation for what could amount to a hostile takeover of the party.

“This is no longer symbolic,” said a party strategist. “It’s structural. They want the keys.”

Old Guard Pushback Expected

Senior ODM figures have so far responded cautiously, but allies of the old guard privately dismiss Owino’s campaign as reckless and divisive. They argue that engagement with government is strategic, not betrayal, and warn that internal warfare could weaken the party ahead of 2027.

Yet the generational arithmetic is shifting. ODM’s grassroots base is younger, more urban, and increasingly impatient with politics of deference and hierarchy. Many feel that the party’s elders have outlived their relevance in a rapidly changing political environment.

A Party at a Crossroads

The confrontation exposes a fundamental question ODM can no longer postpone: Is it a movement anchored in legacy, or a vehicle for generational renewal?

If Owino succeeds, ODM could undergo its most dramatic transformation since its formation—shedding long-serving power brokers and rebranding as a youth-driven opposition force. If he fails, the rebellion could fracture the party, pushing younger leaders to the margins or out altogether.

Either way, the détente that once held ODM together is clearly over.

As the next NDC approaches, the battle lines are now visible: experience versus energy, continuity versus disruption, legacy versus future. And for the first time in years, the fiercest threat to ODM’s unity is not external—but from within.