A serious shake up is underway at the nerve centre of Raila Odinga’s ODM Party in preparations for 2022 polls. The changes are spearheaded by a high profile Secretariat Management Committee that was formed in june with expectations to take effect in November this year.
SMC is proposing radical changes to the Party’s summit to have a professional Secretariat headed by Executive Director who will be directly answerable to the Secretariat Management Board. The overhaul is a re-branding strategy carried out to prepare the party for 2022 elections. The exercise will see many top party officials sent packing.
ODM has never rebranded since its formation after the 2005 refrendum, many parties have re-branded, changed names or disappeared in the thin air. Parties like PNU, TNA, URP were used as election vehicles and bundled immediately after being used to ascend to power. Many parties in Kenya are used like that, of all the millenium parties, ODM Party has maintained its original form the longest.
ODM-Kenya headed by former VP Kalonzo Msyoka rebranded to Wiper Democratic Movement. TNA and URP merged to form Jubilee Party ahead of 2017 general polls. Re-branding ODM is necessary for the party boss who is crazy about politics, Raila still wants to run for presidency despite failing to clinch it in his four attempts.
Re-branding is a necessary strategy the party must employ as they prepare for 2022 to look fresh and compete in an election that will be dominated by new parties and younger presidential candidates.
