The One Kenya Alliance (OKA) has included in its constitution a clause that allows for automatic dissolution of the coalition once its member parties enter partnership deals with other political formations, effectively leaving open a door for Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka to join the Azimio la Umoja grouping.
The Saturday Nation yesterday learnt that the agreement signed contains a provision declaring that OKA will stand dissolved should the alliance opt to join another similar coalition as part of its August 9 General Election strategy.
The outfits also inserted a clause stipulating that any party to the OKA deal only needs to write to the Registrar of Political Parties notifying of its intention to withdraw, further easing the process of dissolving the coalition to suit members’ interests.
“We have put there a clause that makes it very easy to dissolve it. If you want to leave you just do a letter to the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties,” said Ugenya MP David Ochieng, who is also the party leader of Movement for Democratic Change (MDG).
Mr Musyoka is today expected to attend the Azimio la Umoja National Delegates Conference (NDC) at Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) where Mr Odinga will be announced the presidential flagbearer for the formation.
By inserting the dissolution clause, Mr Musyoka ensured that signing of the OKA deal would not derail ongoing talks with Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga.
Details of the agreement emerged late yesterday on a day Mr Musyoka was raising his stakes in the talks with Azimio as negotiators were racing to finalise the deal by midnight.
The Mt Kenya region factor has caused a split between Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka, with the latter demanding that he gets the running mate position in the eventual deal.
Giving Mr Musyoka the running mate position could, however, make the Azimio coalition less attractive to the region, making the coalition’s key rival, Deputy President William Ruto, more popular to the electorate.
“The issue is on the pairing of the presidential ticket. The other matters can be worked out. It is a question of who will be the presidential candidate and who will be the running mate,” Kitui Senator Enock Wambua, an ally of Mr Musyoka, said.
According to Mr Wambua, the Wiper leader and Mr Odinga worked together in 2013 and 2017, coming close to winning.
“The pairing of that ticket essentially cannot be different. To expect that a situation would arise that one of them would be a presidential candidate and the other would have to wait for some other things that nobody knows is to ask too much from people who have worked together from 2013 and done so much together,” Mr Wambua said.
For Mr Musyoka and his Wiper brigade, the mountain region should be contented with other positions in the alliance, especially having been assured that their candidate for Nairobi governor would be adopted as the alliance candidate.
President Kenyatta is also hoping that his Jubilee Party will get a substantive position in the deal, by which he can assuage Mt Kenya people.
As the talks headed to a conclusion yesterday, a negotiator from the OKA side told the Saturday Nation that the “general view is that Kalonzo becomes the running mate.”
Since the OKA deal has not been registered, an Azimio-OKA agreement today could save the OKA constituent parties from the hassle of having to write to the Registrar of Political Parties as there is nothing yet binding them.
“It is more of cooperation than a coalition,” a member of one of the constituent parties told the Saturday Nation .
While some within the coalition expressed their displeasure with the provision, it emerged that it was included as part of the deliberate scheme to skirt around the law, which does not allow a deal between two coalitions and offer the OKA team an easier way to get into Azimio.
The significance of this provision in the OKA deal is that should Mr Musyoka hammer out an agreement with Mr Odinga and President Kenyatta, he will find it easy to cross over from OKA to the new coalition.
In the lead up to the signing of the deal, there had been concerns, especially from the ODM side, that the OKA alliance deal would complicate talks as they could not join Azimio as a coalition.
OKA spokesman Fred Okango confirmed that the alliance will attend the conference, to be followed by a rally at Jacaranda Grounds in Embakasi East, Nairobi.
“We have received an invitation to attend the Azimio Delegates Conference at KICC. We shall be there,” Mr Okango said, adding that the agreement details the mode of engagement among the constituent parties and their potential partners.
Mr Musyoka alongside his OKA principals Gideon Moi of Kanu, Martha Karua of Narc-Kenya and Cyrus Jirongo of UDP, welcomed two more parties into the outfit, increasing the number to six.
Mr Musyoka said the agreement marks the beginning of a new journey, and that OKA will use the deal to negotiate with Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga.
The Friday signing event came after OKA in February postponed it. Some members of the alliance, led by Ms Karua, asked for more time to study the coalition agreement.
Mr Musyoka said Wiper and OKA were now ready for negotiations with like-minded parties, adding that such a dialogue should be structured and open.
He added that his party had made sacrifices before and was still willing to make more sacrifices.
By Walter Menya, Ibrahim Oruko and Silas Apollo
