Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi’s camp has ganged up with Deputy President William Ruto’s side to fight a proposal to ensure a coalition political party submits a pre-election agreement six months to the General Election.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga have fronted a bill before the National Assembly to facilitate formation of a coalition party thought to be Azimio la Umoja, on whose ticket Mr Odinga is expected to contest the presidency.
But MPs allied to Mr Mudavadi, Mr Moses Wetangula and Dr Ruto want to shorten the timeline for submission of the coalition agreement to three months to the elections, arguing that the amendment proposing six months is a scheme to force One Kenya Alliance (OKA) to show their presidential strategy by February.
One of the provisions in the Political Parties (amendment) Bill, which seeks to legislate a coalition political party, is to require such a party submits a pre-election coalition agreement to the Registrar of Political Parties six months to the General Election.
Essentially, this would mean the president and Mr Odinga’s Jubilee and ODM parties that are forging a coalition and have reached out to other parties, including OKA affiliates, have a February deadline to put it together.
Currently, the Political Parties Act, which the bill proposes to amend, provides that such an agreement, which details parties to the coalition, their power-sharing arrangement and coalition structure, among others, is filed three months to the elections.
It emerged yesterday Mr Mudavadi’s ANC and Mr Wetangula’s Ford-Kenya, which are opposed to the six-month timeline, have broken ranks with fellow OKA affiliate, Wiper of Mr Kalonzo Musyoka.
ANC deputy party leader Ayub Savula has proposed a further amendment to the bill to retain the three months’ timeline alleging the six months’ deadline is a scheme to coerce OKA to either back Mr Odinga or DP Ruto.
“This is a trap for us in OKA. When you look at other presidential candidates, they are prepared. Raila is ready under the Azimio la Umoja and Ruto is also ready under United Democratic Alliance (UDA). It is only us in OKA that are yet to come up with our presidential candidate and we cannot do it between now and February,” Mr Savula told the Nation .
The proposed amendment by Mr Savula mirrors others fronted by former Majority Leader Aden Duale and Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa, who are allied to DP Ruto’s UDA.
Asked by the Nation to comment on the proposal to have a coalition party submit a pre-poll agreement six months to the election, Mr Mudavadi neither replied to our text message nor answered our calls.
However, Mr Musyoka said the proposed amendment has the full backing of the Wiper party.
“The proposal has the full support of the Wiper Democratic Movement,” Mr Musyoka told Nation yesterday.
Wiper’s position will further lend credence to reports that Mr Musyoka is in talks for an alliance with President Kenyatta and Mr Odinga’s parties. Already, Wiper has a cooperation agreement with President Kenyatta’s Jubilee.
Mr Savula wants Clause 8 (b) of the bill amended so that the provision of six months is replaced with three months.
“Notice is given that I (Savula) intends to move amendments to the Political Parties (Amendment) Bill that clause 8 (b) of the bill be amended in the proposed provision by deleting the ‘six’ and substituting therefore the word ‘three’,” reads Savula’s proposed amendment that has been approved by the Speaker and will be considered today.
Ford Kenya secretary-general Chris Wamalwa also said they will move a similar amendment to ensure parties deposit a coalition pact three months to the elections and not six as proposed.
“The general objective of the bill is good but we must address the issue of timelines. We can’t be forced to do it within six months. In OKA, we are still doing negotiations and negotiations are delicate as it involves give and take,” Mr Wamalwa told the Nation.
Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei said the bill is targeting OKA and Mr Mudavadi in particular because he has refused to support Mr Odinga’s candidature.
Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr said the country has consistently made amendments to the Political Parties Act before elections to suit the political season.
“There no reason or mischief being cured, it is an amendment that seems to aim to lock political parties in a coalition so many months before nominations. It will only create confusion,” Mr Kilonzo said.
Mr Wamalwa, however, said he supports other proposals in the bill like the sharing of political parties funds by parties in a coalition based on the votes a party contributes to the presidential candidate of that coalition.
“As Ford Kenya, we have been victims both in Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) and National Super Alliance (Nasa) where we were at the mercy of the big brother but the proposal now says it’s the registrar who will share the money. That is a good proposal,” he said.
The highly anticipated debate on the bill, however, was postponed to this morning.
Had the House debated the matter before the closure of the 5pm deadline, the process would have been exposed to legal action.
Majority Leader Amos Kimunya said the House will debate the matter today after the Justice and Legal Affairs has circulated its report on the bill to all members.
“We will step down this business so that we give the legal committee time to put together their report and members are given a copy tonight so that tomorrow (today) morning we debate from a point of knowledge,” Mr Kimunya said.
The chairman of Justice and Legal Affairs committee, Muturi Kigano, said the report will be ready for today’s debate.
