ODM youth activist Kasmuel McOure has explained former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s proposed framework for conducting the upcoming national conclave.
Speaking during a local radio interview on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, McOure said the opposition leader wants the process to begin at the grassroots level, with delegates drawn from all 47 counties.
According to McOure, Raila has emphasized the need for balanced representation, insisting that half of the participants must be young people, while the other half should consist of older generations.
“Raila has specified how he wants the conclave to happen and its dialogue process,” McOure said. “I am in for it, and I am campaigning for it. He says the conclave must have representatives from all 47 countries; they organise at grassroots levels, but 50 per cent of the participants must be youth, and 50 per cent are of other generations. They need to sit down, come up with resolutions, and we make it into a national process.”
He stated that Raila Odinga’s approach aims to offer a chance for every Kenyan to be heard, even for those in remote areas such as Marsabit, where they might not be able to access national forums. The idea, McOure continued, is to gather suggestions from across the nation and mix them into one national discourse with diverse opinions and grassroots solutions.
McOure also pushed back against the belief that Kenya has had multiple national dialogues. In his view, the country has only had one true and effective national dialogue – the process that led to the 2010 Constitution and the Grand Coalition Government.
He noted that while other forums have been labeled as national dialogues, most lacked the political will to implement their outcomes, rendering them ineffective.
Kasmuel McOure stressed that Kenya has reached a tipping point, one that calls for another moment of national transformation, similar to the lead-up to the 2010 Constitution.
He acknowledged that the Constitution remains solid on paper but argued that its weak implementation continues to hold back the country. According to him, a renewed national dialogue could reignite the same spirit of reform that birthed Kenya’s current legal framework.
“We have a very good constitution, but it’s not being implemented,” McOure said.
He dismissed claims that the call for dialogue is a ploy to create a new political position for Raila Odinga. McOure, who is close to the ODM leader, insisted that Raila has no interest in political seats at this stage of his career.
“We are not here to say we want to have dialogue to have a position for Raila Odinga; what position does he need now? And I can say this because I spent a lot of time with him; he does not need anything from it,” McOure stated.
He concluded by saying that he was fully behind the new national conclave proposal and that this one is distinct from the previous attempts. It is distinct, he argued, in that it has broad grassroots support and the political blessing of one of Kenya’s strongest leaders.
