Kanchory now asserts that President William Ruto has been working behind the scenes to bring the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) together amid the power struggles among its officials and members after securing Cabinet and other high-level state appointments under the broad-based agreement with UDA.
Kanchory claims that Mr. Ruto is putting forth a lot of effort to keep the party cohesive out of concern that the party's internal strife might make his reelection campaign more difficult.
"Ruto desperately needs ODM for 2027...he is a wily politician. IEBC is already in his pocket and he now needs ODM to create an illusion of support which makes it easy to play around with votes in his strongholds, even with voter apathy," remarked Kanchory.
Speaking on Spice FM on January 8, the late Raila Odinga's chief agent in his unsuccessful 2022 presidential bid revealed that Ruto had reached out to sections of ODM opposed to the Party's cooperation deal with the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA), amid speculation that the two parties could present a united front in the 2027 elections.
"William Ruto would have really loved it if we all lined up. He has looked for all of us and tried to get support from some of us.He would be happy if ODM stood behind him," he said.
However, Kanchory claimed that the appointments have made it harder for the party leadership to oppose the government, which is a significant departure from the anti-establishment politics that characterized ODM for the majority of its two decades of existence.
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