END OF LEASE SAY ODM, END OF ODM SUSPECT OTHERS

Since 2006 it has been the home of Raila Odinga’s political organisation and at the epicentre of his unsuccessful election campaigns in 2007, 2013 and 2017 but the days of the Orange House on the Menelik Road in the Kilimani area of Nairobi being the Orange Democratic Movement’s headquarters are numbered. Could it be a sign that the days of the Movement are numbered too?

The Orange House’s landlord is none other than Caroli Omondi, former aide to Raila Odinga. Omondi has now refused to renew the lease on the property and ODM’s tenure seems set to come to an end in December.

ORANGE HOUSE SCENE OF MANY A BRAWL

Not only was the Orange House the campaign centre for ODM it also witnessed many an unedifying internal party meetings over the years, characterised by punch-ups and brawls.

In October 2014 the ODM’s former Executive Director, Margerer Lang’at was physically ejected from a meeting by party officials.

In June 2016, Edwin Sifuna was pronounced secretary general, ousting Ababu Namwamba. That meeting also ended in the best of two falls, two submissions and a knockout!

ODM apparatchiks are passing the whole affair off as a simple matter of an expiring lease and the need to move on but if Raila Odinga and his right-hand man Caroli Omondi didn’t want it to happen, lease or no lease, the ODM would have been able to remain in their Orange House. Which brings us to the question: is the end of the Orange House the precursor to the end of the ODM?