A member of a political party at the centre of a takeover dispute has admitted demanding Sh274 million for the outfit, indicating how badly politicians want to gain control of parties ahead of the 2022 General Election.
Politicians, especially governors, have acquired outfits for political survival, fearing they may be edged out during major-party nominations in favour of loyalists. Others want to own parties as vehicles to negotiate their political future, especially governors serving their final term.
It is for these reasons that politicians are going to any length to acquire parties that they can control, including parting with huge sums of money to buy them.
For Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi, acquiring the Restore and Build Kenya (RBK) party is causing him nightmares after two members – Mr Aloysius Okoth Mondoh and Mr Peter Gordon Ochieng Odeng – contested the party’s takeover by new officials.
Mr Murungi has rebranded RBK into the Devolution Empowerment Party (DEP) with a bus symbol that he used on his Alliance Party of Kenya, which collapsed alongside 12 others to form the Jubilee Party in 2016.
He hopes to rope in politicians in the Mt Kenya East counties of Embu, Tharaka Nithi and Meru and parts of Isiolo and use the outfit to negotiate for the interests of the region, which has declared it will chart its own political path “after years of exploitation by [Mt Kenya West]”.
New secretary-general Mugambi Imanyara swore an affidavit at the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal, claiming that by demanding Sh274 million, Mr Mondoh was trying to extort money.
“After we refused to honour the demand, Mr Mondoh said he would ensure we did not get control of the party,” Mr Imanyara said in court documents.
But in his replying affidavit, Mr Mondoh denies the accusation, saying he did not have any apologies to make.
According to Mr Mondoh, the first meeting to try and convince him to relinquish RBK was held in Nairobi on September 14, 2021 at the invitation of Mr Murungi, but he accuses the other party of not disclosing beforehand who would be at the negotiation table.
Mr Murungi had asked him to state “what he wanted” in exchange for the party, court papers show.
While the officials have painted a picture of a greedy man who was out to extort money, Mr Mondoh says he had been appointed to act on behalf of members opposed to the takeover. Prof James Ole Kiyiapi, who ran for President on the party’s ticket in 2012, is also opposed to the takeover.
The complainant maintains that Mr Murungi will not take over the party for free, adding that after he quoted his price, no one has bothered to give him a counter-offer.
“Hon Kiraitu Murungi and his team would have to refund all expenses associated with RBK to date, which is Sh274,437,755.50 and continues to grow as we spend more money in litigation,” the affidavit says.
He says that emissaries, including Mr Murungi's deputy Titus Ntuchiu, were sent to him before and after he filed the case at the tribunal in an attempt to convince him to surrender the outfit. He was also offered a fully paid trip to Meru for negotiations with Mr Murungi, which he says he declined.
Mr Mondoh says former Embu Senator Lenny Kivuti, the chairman of the new party chairman, offered to pay their legal expenses, “for which I later sent him a bank account, and [he] offered to nominate me 'even now' to run for Busia County governor on RBK ticket”.
It also emerged that the members opposed the change of the party’s name and symbol. After being renamed DEP, its new officials say it would be launched soon.
The matter will be mentioned tomorrow (October 26) when the PPDT is expected to issue further directions.
