It will not be easy for Mbadi to achieve his dream of political greatness

Like most politicians, John Mbadi Ng'ongo is an ambitious man. His pronounced ambition is to be leader of the Luo people which might catapult him to the presidency. He, however, lacks Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s ability to command public trust or Raila Amolo Odinga’s spell binding magnetism.

Yet he believes he is the rightful successor to both Jaramogi and Raila mainly because he is the senior-most Luo government official. Neither Jaramogi nor Raila ever claimed Luo leadership on account of holding high office in government. Mbadi works hard to be eloquent and occasionally makes statements that attract short-lived attention in part because he lacks verbal elegance.

Mbadi is not the first man to have dreams of grandeur to be the leader of people simply because the president appointed him to an office. Rigathi Gachagua made similar claims after 2022 as deputy president and insisted that he was the leader of the Mountain simply because he held the highest government office.

While Gachagua was William Ruto’s running mate and was therefore officially elected, Mbadi was simply appointed as part of the Raila-Ruto deal to undermine the Gen Zs and create the broad-based government in which Raila’s ODM reportedly donated ‘experts’ to beef up the ‘level’ of competence in Ruto’s fledgling government. Since Mbadi could not claim to have an independent political base, his claim to lead the Luo sounded hollow.

Mbadi’s leadership claim, based on Ruto’s ministerial benevolence, sounded strange partly because he had previously said nasty things about Ruto’s Cabinet. As ODM chairman and MP for Suba, Mbadi had claimed that incompetence was Ruto’s Cabinet's outstanding characteristic. To run the government from the State House, Mbadi had asserted, Ruto had appointed the unfit to the Cabinet and concluded “Give President Ruto his skunk.” In less than two years, however, Mbadi joined the ‘skunk’ Cabinet as the Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS).

Ruto praise singer

Seemingly intending to avoid Jaramogi’s mistake of letting a supposed ideal to make him not to grab political opportunity to become ‘prime minister’ in colonial Kenya, Mbadi snatched the opportunity to become the first Treasury CS from Luoland. He thereafter distinguished himself as a grateful Ruto praise singer. While Jaramogi did not want to be another ‘Musa Amalemba’ and be labelled ‘traitor’ to the Africans, Mbadi would not let the chance of becoming the top Luo in the Ruto government slip through his political fingers. He had always, he stated, wanted to be Minister for Finance and Ruto made his dream come true.

Mbadi believes that he is the new “ruoth”, stepping into Raila’s political shoes, and has vowed to use his position to impose ‘affirmative action’ to develop Luo areas. He however has to contend with other ambitious players within Luoland and the ODM.

Although the splitting of ODM started long before Raila’s death, it intensified after the funeral ceremony at Bondo as the ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna’s ‘Wantam’ brigade vowed to unseat Ruto in 2027 while the Oburu Odinga and John Mbadi ‘tutam’ squad vowed to remain in Ruto’s broad-based government. Mbadi, accusing Sifuna of splitting ODM as a party, helped to engineer the attempted ouster of Sifuna from the party which backfired by increasing Sifuna’s national popularity. To make matters worse for Mbadi, revered ODM elders like James Orengo were on Sifuna’s side.

The sense of political opportunism made Mbadi to discard principles willingly. Failing to command support, he sounds desperate in the midst of the spreading Sifuna ‘Wantam’ wave. He worries about losing his CS job if ODM leaves Ruto’s government. He laments his inability to rebuild ‘trust’ and that people fail to appreciate Ruto's achievements. In defending Ruto’s high operational expenses to stage small ‘Nyota’ events, Mbadi responded to Sifuna’s question by quipping that Ruto should not be expected to walk to Nyota events. He is hollow, justifying the indefensible, and thereby dwindles his leadership ambitions.