Why ODM pact with UDA can’t last long in the broad-based ‘plot’

The so-called “broad-based government” born out of the ODM–UDA political handshake was always a fragile construction—an arrangement stitched together in haste, lacking ideological coherence, structural clarity, and, most crucially, a succession blueprint.

It was marketed as a stabilising mechanism during a national political transition, but in truth, it exposed the deep contradictions embedded within both formations. Today, with Raila Odinga’s passing and the reverberations still unsettling the political landscape, the pact stands exposed: shaky and on the verge of collapse. At the heart of the crisis lies a fundamental problem—there were no explicit terms governing the future of the arrangement. President William Ruto hoped that bringing ODM into the fold would neutralise opposition.

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