DNK International By Our Correspondent,Homabay
Homa Bay Town MP George Peter Opondo Kaluma has once again found himself at the centre of political controversy following Sunday’s chaos in Homa Bay County during the tour of the Linda Mwananchi movement led by Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna.
Kaluma has been accused by his political opponents of allegedly making inflammatory remarks prior to the visit by the movement brigade.
His opponents are calling for government agencies, including the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), to take action over what they describe that his remarks threatened peace and order.
The allegations have added another chapter to the colourful and sometimes turbulent political career of one of Homa Bay’s most outspoken legislators.
Kaluma who is in his 50’s attended Ndiru Primary School between 1983 and 1990 before joining St Joseph’s High School, Rapogi, where he completed his secondary education.
He proceeded to the University of Nairobi, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 2000.
Kaluma later obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies from the Kenya School of Law and a Master of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi in 2008.
Before entering elective politics, Kaluma built a career as an advocate and legal educator.
He underwent pupilage at Lumumba & Mumma Advocates, worked as an associate at B.M. Musau & Company Advocates and later became a partner at Lumumba, Mumma & Kaluma Advocates.
His political breakthrough came in the 2013 General election when he won the Homa Bay Town parliamentary seat on an ODM ticket with 20,865 votes, representing about 67.3 per cent of the valid votes.
He has retained the seat in subsequent elections, establishing himself as one of the longest serving and most recognisable political figures in Homa Bay.
Kaluma’s political rise as established by DNK-International was closely associated with the late ODM leader Raila Odinga.
He became one of Raila’s outspoken defenders and remained publicly loyal to the former Prime Minister even during periods when ODM was facing internal disagreements.
His loyalty to Raila has been one of the defining features of his political identity.
In August 2025, he went as far as declaring that only Raila could defeat President William Ruto in a 2027 presidential contest, demonstrating the strength of the political attachment that had characterised their relationship.
But Kaluma’s politics have undergone a significant transformation following the emergence of the broad based government arrangement between Raila’s ODM and President William Ruto’s administration.
He has become one of the most vocal ODM supporters of the arrangement, arguing that the partnership is in the interests of Nyanza and Kenya.
In Parliament in June 2025, Kaluma described himself as a staunch supporter of the Memorandum of Understanding between Raila and Ruto and insisted that supporting the broad based government did not make him any less loyal to ODM.
He has repeatedly defended the arrangement, arguing that Nyanza should benefit from its participation in government rather than remain permanently in opposition.
In July 2026, after the Ol Kalou by-election, Kaluma said the result should make President Ruto take ODM and Nyanza more seriously.
His parliamentary record has also been marked by a strong interest in law, governance, infrastructure and constitutional affairs.
He has served on the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and other parliamentary committees and has sponsored legislation touching on areas including succession, anti-corruption and roads.
More recently, he has emerged as a prominent sponsor of the Kenya Roads (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to address questions surrounding road maintenance financing and the role of counties.
Parliament has described the Bill as addressing constitutional gaps concerning the Road Maintenance Levy Fund and devolution.
For his supporters, such initiatives demonstrate a legislator who has attempted to use his legal background to influence national policy while championing the interests of Homa Bay and the wider Nyanza region.
His parliamentary interventions have frequently centred on equity, devolution, infrastructure and what he regards as the need for historically marginalised regions to receive a fair share of national development.
Kaluma, however, has never been a politician who shies away from controversy.
One of the most memorable episodes came in November 2016 when he was involved in a physical confrontation with political rival Washington Ogaga during an ODM gathering at Homa Bay Stadium in the presence of Raila Odinga.
Dramatic images showed Ogaga wrestling Kaluma to the ground.
Both men were later fined Sh100,000 each by ODM over the incident, while Kaluma was also charged with assault and denied the allegations.
The incident became one of the defining images of Kaluma’s combative political style and illustrated the intensity of political competition in Homa Bay.
Almost a decade later, Kaluma again found himself in the middle of political violence when he was attacked during the 2025 Kasipul parliamentary by-election following the killing of the sitting MP, Charles Ong’ondo Were.
Kaluma, who was serving as ODM’s chief agent, was attacked at Agoro Sare Primary School and sustained a head injury.
His bodyguard was also attacked and a firearm was reportedly taken during the confrontation.
The Kasipul episode reinforced Kaluma’s reputation as a politician willing to operate directly on the ground during high stakes political contests.
He was also among the ODM leaders who campaigned strongly for Boyd Were, the son of the slain MP, in the subsequent by-election.
His political influence extends beyond Homa Bay Town.
His position as a veteran ODM legislator, his close association with the late Raila Odinga and his current role as one of the strongest advocates of the ODM-UDA broad-based arrangement have given him a prominent voice in Nyanza politics.
Kaluma has also become one of the sharpest critics of ODM figures whom he believes oppose the broad-based arrangement.
His clashes with Edwin Sifuna have been particularly pronounced.
In 2025, he demanded that Sifuna resign as ODM Secretary-General or be removed from the party over his criticism of the broad-based government.
That history gives Sunday’s Homa Bay confrontation an additional political dimension.
Sifuna,ODM Secretary General and now the leader of Linda Mwananchi, has become a political opponent of the broad-based arrangement that Kaluma strongly defends.
The latest clash therefore pits two prominent figures from the ODM political establishment against each other on opposite sides of one of the most consequential political realignments in contemporary Kenyan politics.
Kaluma’s memorable political statements have often reflected his direct and uncompromising style.
He has described the broad-based government as “unstoppable”, argued that ODM should remain in government beyond the 2027 elections and famously warned his critics that the arrangement represented a long term political strategy.
He has also repeatedly argued that ODM’s participation in government should translate into development for Nyanza.
In one parliamentary intervention, he pointed to new roads and infrastructure as evidence that the broad-based government was opening opportunities for regions that had previously complained of marginalisation.
His outspoken nature has, however, repeatedly landed him in controversy.
He has made contentious statements on issues ranging from policing and security to culture, gender and social policy, often provoking criticism from opponents and sections of the public.
In 2023, for example, remarks about professionals wearing dreadlocks sparked an online backlash, while his 2025 comments opposing male circumcision also generated controversy.
On security, Kaluma has also taken hard-line positions.
In June 2025, he defended then Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen’s controversial remarks on police use of force, saying police should not stand by when officers are attacked or property is destroyed.
What is beyond dispute is that Kaluma has evolved from a relatively young lawyer entering Parliament in 2013 into one of the most recognisable political voices in Homa Bay and the wider Nyanza region.
His career has been defined by legal expertise, fierce loyalty to political causes, confrontational political battles and an ability to remain relevant through changing political alliances.
For years he was identified almost entirely with Raila Odinga and the opposition politics of ODM.
Today, he remains an ODM politician but has positioned himself at the centre of the party’s broad-based government camp, strongly defending the political understanding between ODM and President Ruto.
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🗓️ [DNK-International@August 17,2026]
