The political tectonic plates in Siaya County are shifting violently as Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi issues a chilling ultimatum to Members of the County Assembly, hinting at a coordinated push to impeach Governor James Orengo.

The warning, delivered with the cryptic brevity of a mob boss, was simple: "Smell the coffee." Yet, in the volatile lexicon of ODM politics, it signifies a declaration of war. Coming mere hours after the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) ruthlessly purged Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna from the Secretary-General post, Atandi’s comments confirm that the Orange Democratic Movement is undergoing a brutal internal cleansing. The target is no longer just the "rebel" MPs who dallied with the government; the crosshairs have moved to the party's intellectual aristocracy, with Orengo now seemingly isolated and vulnerable.

The Purge Widens

The ouster of Sifuna was the opening salvo. Chaired by Oburu Oginga, the NEC’s decision to remove the vocal Senator cited "disciplinary concerns," a euphemism for his fierce opposition to the party’s dalliance with President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA). Sifuna, and by extension Orengo, have been the ideological guardrails of the party, warning that the "broad-based government" deal was a poisoned chalice. Their removal and targeting suggest that the party leadership has decided that ideological purity is less important than strategic compliance.

Atandi’s call to the MCAs is a clear instruction to mobilize. In Kenyan county politics, when a senior MP tells MCAs to "smell the coffee," it usually means the budget for an impeachment motion is being drafted. Orengo, a legal titan who has fought battles in the Supreme Court that defined the nation, now faces a political street brawl in his own backyard where legal arguments matter less than numbers in the assembly.

• The Trigger: Edwin Sifuna’s removal as ODM Secretary General for opposing the UDA pact.
• The Threat: Samuel Atandi urging Siaya MCAs to turn against Governor Orengo.
• The Context: A widening rift between ODM's "collaborators" in government and the "purists" led by Orengo and Sifuna.

A Battle for the Soul of Nyanza

This infighting threatens to shatter the hegemony ODM has enjoyed in Nyanza for two decades. Orengo is not just a governor; he is a repository of the struggle’s history. To impeach him would be to sever a link to the past. However, the new power brokers, aligned with the reality of the post-Raila transition, seem determined to install a leadership structure that is pragmatic rather than dogmatic.

The silence from other senior party figures is deafening. It implies tacit approval of the purge. If Orengo falls, it sends a message that no one is safe, and that the party is pivoting entirely towards a new, cooperative era with the state—whether the base agrees with it or not.

The End of an Era?

For James Orengo, a man who famously said "governments eat their own children," the irony is bitter. He is now on the menu, not of the state, but of the party he helped build. As the MCAs digest Atandi's message, the Governor must now calculate his survival odds in a game where the rules have been rewritten overnight.

"The coffee is brewing," a local analyst noted. "And it tastes remarkably like betrayal."