Leaders of parties in the ruling coalition, including Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Speaker Moses Wetang’ula , will be among the casualties of President William Ruto’s plan to forge a strong party ahead of the next elections.
Having negotiated their positions in the Kenya Kwanza Alliance through pre-election agreements, merger of the parties would not only blunt Mr Mudavadi’s and Mr Wetang’ula’s political consolidation through their own parties, but also free President Ruto from their demands while campaigning for re-election.
Apart from Mr Mudavadi (Amani National Congress) and Mr Wetangula (Ford Kenya), other party chiefs to be affected are Senate Speaker Amason Kingi (Pamoja African Alliance), Attorney-General Justin Muturi (Democratic Party) and Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua (Maendeleo Chap Chap).
“It reduces bargaining power at the national level and frustrates political competition at the grassroots. In my view, Mudavadi, Wetang’ula, Mutua and Kingi should totally resist this idea before it's too late because it takes away their bargaining power, identity and is bad for democracy,” argued Dr Erick Komolo, a lawyer and political analyst.
Although President Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua are focused on building what they have described as a “strong and vibrant” political party, Dr Komolo warned that the move is likely to cause a fallout similar to the one between President Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta in the Jubilee administration.
“Jubilee folded its affiliate parties including URP and TNA in the lead up to 2017 General Election. That was, in many ways, the beginning of bitter fallout between Uhuru and Ruto. Folding up parties is bad for a maturing democracy like Kenya where people tend to vote along ethnic and regional lines,” he said.
The plan, which saw President Ruto tap ANC’s Cleophas Malala to be UDA’s secretary-general , is to ensure all Kenya Kwanza leaders are under UDA, giving the Head of State space to woo leaders from other parties. Already, he has started wooing Mr Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party, whose future depends on what the former President will do in a fortnight.
Yesterday, Mr Malala told the Nation that they have given themselves around five years to achieve the one-party dream, which has already started meeting resistance in Kenya Kwanza.
“We have to build one strong political outfit that will be written in the books of history to unite the country. We want to be like the African National Congress of South Africa,” said Mr Malala. “We cannot be forming parties for elections so every election period we have new parties. We have to have one for posterity.”
Governance expert Javas Bigambo argued that immediately the likes of Mr Mudavadi, Mr Wetang’ula, Mr Kingi and Dr Mutua agreed to join Dr Ruto’s government, that was the first step towards losing their individual parties because their focus on strengthening those parties was taken away.
“They will have to be baptised in the water of absolute loyalty and submission. Secondly, from the time they occupy their respective offices, they have to do the President's bidding and constructively help him achieve his goals and agenda. None of them is aggressively repositioning their individual parties,” said Mr Bigambo.
“UDA, on the other hand, is growing in strength, remodelling itself, attracting new leadership and talents for future positioning. So, UDA will retain a serious upper hand,” he added.
Giving Mr Malala the new role was a scheme to move the leadership of UDA away from Rift Valley and Central Kenya and shed off the tribal tag that the party is for Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities only.
With ANC Secretary-General Simon Kamau Gikuru likely to be given a chief administrative secretary job and chairperson Kelvin Lunani to land a parastatal job, this will likely be the beginning of the party’s downfall. While avoiding to comment on the issue of ANC being swallowed by UDA, Mr Gikuru yesterday admitted that the party will support Dr Ruto until 2032.
“We have intentions to make the party strong and support the President to win the second term. The ANC will support Dr Ruto for 10 years,” he said.
After ANC, those in the know say that the next in line is Ford Kenya.
“The next step is to make Wetang’ula fold his party to join UDA. We are hoping that the President will have a talk with him on this because we can’t have leaders serving in Kenya Kwanza and they are still party leaders,” said one of the allies of President Ruto who requested not to be named.
But Webuye East MP Martin Wanyonyi, an ally of Mr Wetang’ula yesterday said Ford Kenya will not fold.
Kibwezi West MP Mwengi Mutuse said: “Maendeleo Chap Chap is an independent party and I can confidently tell our members that we will not fold. Instead, we shall grow the party to be stronger going forward. This way, we will make a meaningful contribution to our coalition,” said Mr Mutuse.
