Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka has come out to reveal that the 4 ODM experts who were donated by their party to cabinet were all approached separately and not through the former prime minister Raila Odinga, as many have thought.

While appearing on the Iko Nini podcast on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, he debunked the narrative that the experts were donated by Raila to the cabinet but clarified that each one of them was approached by Ruto separately.

He added that Ruto approached the 4 experts, Energy CS Opiyo Wandayi, Treasury CS John Mbadi, Cooperatives CS Wickliffe Oparanya, and Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho, before reaching out to the party leader, Raila Odinga himself, informing him of his desire to have the 4 in his government.

He went ahead to state that Raila then wanted to negotiate on behalf of Azimio so that each constituent party of Azimio could have benefited, and according to Kalonzo, Raila’s hands were tied since the so-called experts had already crossed over, and he was only left with the choice of disagreeing with the 4 or remaining with other leaders who were his co-principals in Azimio but later chose to follow them.

Raila’s demand

“By the way, these so-called experts pushed Raila. Raila wanted to negotiate on behalf of Azimio; he didn’t want to leave Azimio, but these guys had gone. Ruto approached them separately na wakakubali, so Raila’s hands were tied. Raila has a choice of disagreeing with these 4 people and staying with us.”

He went ahead to state that Raila was championing a national convention that could have seen the whole opposition then come under one umbrella called the grand cabinet and negotiate with the government on the slots instead of his party only benefiting, but the 4 CS who had crossed over pushed him into buying the idea, and they did not want him to go that route of involving constituent parties of Azimio.

“Ruto approached them separately. Baba wanted a national convention. I think he is still dreaming about it today. He wanted a national convention, and that was when we could have agreed on the opposition side to give their names of who joins the grand Cabinet.”

This comes months after the formation of a broad-based government that saw 4 ODM members crossing over to the government. This followed the dissolution of the cabinet, which was as a result of gen z protests that demanded the overhaul of the cabinet