Raila Odinga with ODM delegates and President William Ruto with UDA delegates.
The ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) are making final preparations for their grassroots elections scheduled for next week.
The polls by the two leading political parties are promising to be a major battle in the struggle for the control of the outfits ahead of 2027 General Election amid major political realignments.
ODM of veteran politician Raila Odinga has since posted returning officers in all the 290 constituencies and presiding officers in the wards ahead of the exercise set for Monday and Wednesday.
Orange Democratic Movement party leader Raila Odinga (centre) with party officials address journalists in Nairobi on April 2, 2025
UDA of President William Ruto has also lined up training for its election officials starting Monday ahead of the exercise scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
UDA National Elections Board Antony Mwaura on Wednesday told the Nation that they would deploy 15,000 election tablets to cover 17 counties. Mr Mwaura said training for the election officials will run from Monday through to Thursday, and assured aspirants of a free and credible exercise.
On April 11, the exercise will be conducted in Kitui, Machakos, Makueni, Kajiado, Turkana, Kisii, Nyamira and Bungoma counties. Others are Migori, Siaya and Kisumu.
On April 12, the party is set to hold the exercise in Garissa, Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, Isiolo and Taita Taveta.
ODM National Elections Coordinating Committee Chairperson Emily Awita said the party has put everything in place to ensure a credible process.
“The Monday election will be conducted at the sub-branch level which is the ward. At the ward level, only delegates elected at polling unit level will be eligible to participate in the exercise. Those who will be elected delegates at the ward level will then proceed to the branch level (constituency) whose election will be held on Wednesday 9, April, 2025,” Ms Awita said.
'Consequential battles'
“We are very ready for the exercise. It is all systems go and we expect the exercise to run smoothly. We have appointed and posted returning officers to all the 290 constituencies as well as presiding officers to all the wards to ensure smooth running of the exercise.”
The constituency elections are promising to be one of the most consequential battles in the struggle for the control of the outfit.
Both elected leaders and 2027 hopefuls are some of the individuals gearing up for the party’s constituency elections, whose outcome would have a great bearing on the election of the party’s national officials.
All constituency chairpersons are members of the party’s National Delegates Convention (NDC), the supreme organ with powers to determine party policy as well as election of national officials.
Some sitting MPs are currently serving as constituency chairpersons, and are likely to defend their positions or front allies to retain control of the party in their areas.
Some of the MPs are also county branch chairpersons – like Makadara MP George Aladwa (Nairobi) – and would be keen on those to be elected at the constituency level to help them retain their seats at the county level.
Being a party official, especially for those with ambition to run in 2027, is considered a plus in securing a party ticket. The planned elections are part of Mr Odinga’s grand scheme to strengthen the structures of the party ahead of the 2027 elections.
30 officials
In the November polling station level elections, party members elected a total of 30 officials. They include Mainstream (10), Youth League (10) and Women League (10). ODM has four tiers of delegates, drawn from the polling station, Ward, Constituency and County levels.
The party explained that the 30 officials at the polling station would form delegates for the ward elections, while those elected at the ward would be the delegates at the constituency elections.
77 officials
The party seeks to elect 77 officials both at sub-branch and branch level under the four committees of mainstream, Women’s League, Youth League and Disability League.
Under mainstream, the delegates will elect chairperson, deputy chairperson, Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, Organising Secretary and Deputy Organising Secretary. Other positions are Secretary for Women, Secretary for Youth, Secretary for Disability, Special Interest Group representative and eight additional officials designated as Committee Members.
The party announced that the elections would be conducted through consensus or voting by show of hands.
Ms Awita announced that any member aggrieved with the outcome would have 12 hours after declaration of the results to file their complaints. They would be required to pay Sh15,000 and Sh30,000 for sub-county and county elections, respectively.
Party elections have in the past turned divisive and chaotic resulting in major fallouts, a scenario that has made many outfits in the country to avoid holding party elections or resort to consensus.
The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties had in August ordered UDA to conclude its elections within 180 days, which has since elapsed.
UDA started its ambitious grassroots elections in April 2024, but was forced to abandon the polls over June nationwide Gen Z protests after concluding the exercise in only two counties of Busia and Homa Bay out of the initial five that were scheduled in the first phase.
The party had planned to conduct the exercise in Nairobi, Narok, Busia, West Pokot and Homa Bay in the first phase. But constituency level elections in West Pokot were postponed over reports of possible violence while Nairobi and Narok were postponed following petitions challenging the credibility of the exercise.
mnyamori@ke.nationmedia.com
