Political party officials can now heave a sigh of relief after the registrar clarified that they have until April 22 to hold their national conventions.
National Delegates Conferences (NDCs) are the highest decision-making organs in parties, with the powers to dictate political direction, including ratifying coalition deals and changes to their constitutions and top leadership.
Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu yesterday said that because the electoral agency released election times late last month indicating that parties have until April 22 to hold their primaries; they now have extended timelines to hold NDCs as long as they are held before the nominations.
“Political parties’ National Delegates Conference should be held in line with respective party constitutions and views of gazetted election timelines. The NDCs, however, should be held before parties’ nomination date whose deadline is April 22, 2022,” Ms Nderitu said.
She said parties must conduct NDCs and elections in every electoral circle in order to comply with the law.
“As a matter of principle of good governance, party elections and NDC should be held at least once in a given electoral cycle, which in our case is every five years,” Ms Nderitu said.
On Sunday, the Democratic Party (DP), during its special NDC at Bomas in Nairobi, endorsed National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi as the party leader and its flag-bearer in the August polls.
The party also decided that it would not enter into any pre-election pact but would consider post-election coalitions.
On Friday last week, Martha Karua’s Narc Kenya, Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu’s Narc and Makueni County Governor Kivutha Kibwana’s Muungano held their NDC.
Governors Ngilu and Kibwana, for their part, said their parties had agreed to formally endorse Mr Odinga for President because of his credentials and his promise for a better Kenya.
Baringo Senator Gideon Moi’s Kanu, Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper and Moses Wetang’ula’s Ford Kenya have held their NDCs, where the three were endorsed as flag-bearers of their respective parties in the August 9 elections.
The Amani National Congress (ANC) also held its NDC last month at the Bomas of Kenya, with leader Musalia Mudavadi announcing his political partnership with Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party under the Kenya Kwanza alliance.
The ruling Jubilee Party and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) have issued notices for their NDCs, which will take place simultaneously on February 25 and 26.
The Jubilee convention will be held at the KICC in Nairobi beginning at 10am, said secretary-general Raphael Tuju in a notice issued last week.
The party will also expedite its coalition pact with Mr Odinga’s ODM, he said.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) of Cyrus Jirongo, meanwhile, has scheduled its NDC for February 24, just a day before ODM and Jubilee start their respective conventions.
In a recent advert, national secretary-general Bernard Wafukho said the NDC will review, ratify, modify, alter or rescind any coalition agreements besides organising party elections.
This comes as a majority of parties have avoided elections, fearing that the process will be infiltrated by their rivals to destabilise them.
The Party of National Unity (PNU), associated with Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya, will hold its NDC this Thursday, just a day before that of Jubilee and ODM.
“(The agenda) of the meeting shall be to discuss and ratify coalition building and the party’s working relationship with other like-minded outfits and related matters,” reads a notice signed by secretary-general John Okemwa and chairman David Kamau.
This is happening as the Registrar of Political Parties asked Kenyans unhappy with their membership in parties to visit e-Citizen to resign from them, noting that her office would issue a USSD code to make the process easier.
“Soon, we are going to provide (a) USSD code to make resignation very easy and joining any party … easier. Kenyans have raised a number of concerns on a case by case basis and we are handling (them) through the digital reforms we have rolled out to ensure that in future such a scenario does not occur,” Ms Nderitu said.
She added: “We have also witnessed a high number on e-Citizen platforms. We are processing 40,000-50,000 resignations per day unlike when we started, where we could only process just 1,000 cases.”
