The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party under the leadership of Raila Odinga did a miscalculation by entering into a political pact with President Uhuru Kenyatta, a political analyst has observed.
According to Prof Herman Manyora, ODM ended its political hostility to the Jubilee Party leader following the famous March 9 handshake.
By accepting to work with the ruling party, Prof Manyora noted, the opposition outfit tied its hands to champion public interest issues, which it could have freely exercised was it still in the opposition.
In an interview with Sunday Standard, the analyst said the handshake was not a clever move, since it has made ODM lose a good chunk of its supporters.
"A lot has happened both in Jubilee and ODM. Definitely, ODM has its focus shifted, and this has happened because of its collaboration with Jubilee, where it thinks certain things they cannot do or question.
"The ODM leadership sees their latest tactics as being clever but I think they are not clever. The leaders are no longer alive to the concerns of the people," he said.
Manyora questioned ODM's silence amid public outcry over rising public debt, which has led to sharp increase in the cost of living.
The Sh210 billion Euro bond could be something else if ODM was still ODM. The party leadership is not reading the mood of the country. This is because the mood in the country is people are not with the leaders, they believe Raila and ODM sold their soul to Jubilee for promises which might not materialise and even his die hard supporters feel duped as they might not ripe the benefits,” he said.