A new survey by Mizani Africa has placed Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo at the front of a crowded field jostling to inherit Raila Odinga’s political mantle. This sharpens a succession debate that has been simmered beneath ODM’s surface for years but is now boiling into the open.
According to the poll results published by Tuko online on Wednesday December 20th, Omollo leads with a significant margin over other perceived heirs to Odinga’s national influence.
It sampled voters across ODM strongholds and key swing counties.
It places the Interior PS at 19.3% with the others scrambling for the rest.
The poll rank him ahead of Hassan Joho, Babu Owino, Edwin Sifuna, Gladys Wanga and Anyang’ Nyong’o, as well as MPs Opiyo Wandayi and James Orengo, names long whispered as potential custodians of the Orange brand in a post-Raila era.
Close competitors included Siaya senator Oburu Oginga and Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna, with a huge section of ODM still undecided.
Mizani attributes Omollo’s rise to a blend of technocratic credibility, emerging grassroots networks and a reputation for administrative discipline built during his tenure in the Interior docket.
While not traditionally viewed as a political heavyweight, Omollo has, in recent months, been increasingly visible across Nyanza, attending community events and holding conversations with local elders, moves that analysts say have not gone unnoticed.
But the poll’s significance extends far beyond numbers. For a party defined for two decades by Odinga’s charisma, longevity and defiant political energy, the question of succession has remained both delicate and divisive.
Though Raila has publicly avoided naming a preferred successor, the poll underscores a growing appetite among voters for clarity on the party’s future direction.
Political analysts note that Omollo’s positioning signals a shift in what ODM supporters may be looking for: stability, competency and a generational refresh rather than the theatrics and bruising rivalries that have traditionally shaped Kenyan opposition politics. His administrative background gives him an aura of a pragmatic problem-solver, an image that contrasts with the more flamboyant styles of Joho or the deeply entrenched party loyalties surrounding Orengo.
Still, Omollo’s rise raises complicated questions. Can a technocrat without a long electoral history command the emotional loyalty that has for years powered the Raila movement? And in a landscape where ethnic arithmetic remains unavoidable, can he rally the broad coalitions that Odinga historically managed to knit across Kenya’s political geography?
What the poll makes clear is that ODM is entering unfamiliar terrain. With the possibility, however faint, that Raila may step back from frontline politics in the coming years, the party faces a moment of introspection: whether to reinvent itself through new faces or reassert its old guard.
For now, Omollo’s lead in the Mizani poll represents more than popularity; it reflects a collective search for continuity without rupture.
