Storm rocks Azimio as small parties form Mwamko Mpya caucus

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya presidential hopeful Raila Odinga is facing a dilemma that could jolt the coalition party with just four months to the August 9 General Election.

The new outfit, whose registration documents are still under review by the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties, is already facing internal rebellion from fringe parties over zoning.

On Wednesday, Maendeleo Chap Chap party leader and Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua, his Makueni counterpart Kivutha Kibwana, Democratic Action Party-Kenya (DAP-K) secretary general Eseli Simiyu and his Chama Cha Uzalendo (CCU) counterpart Phillippe Sadhja demanded a re-negotiation of the Azimio coalition agreement, saying they had been given the short end of the stick. Other parties are Kenya Reform Party, Narc and Maendeleo Democratic Party.

The seven parties, under what they called the Mwanzo Mpya caucus within Azimio, accused President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee, Mr Odinga’s ODM and Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper of not giving them their fair share, and making all decisions unilaterally.

‘Big brothers’

The coalition party brings together more than 20 political parties with the three parties considered the “big brothers” in the coalition.

The team also demanded that all Azimio parties be allowed to propose a candidate for Mr Odinga’s running mate post, further escalating the tensions in the outfit, as Mr Musyoka and Mt Kenya region angling for the position.

But it was on the proposed zoning – where parties in a coalition are allowed exclusive rights to field candidates in a region – that the parties Wednesday stamped their feet, demanding an urgent review.

“We as political parties are in elections to win, and we will not allow ourselves to be caught up in nominations, or zoning. Some parties in Azimio have appointed themselves the heads, and told the rest of us to take it or leave it. We do not accept that,” said Dr Mutua.

Dr Eseli said: “We cannot allow zoning in Azimio. We have candidates all over the country and we are in these races to win.”

“We feel that we deserve a choice place in Azimio and that is why we are talking of a table of four legs,” said Prof Kibwana.

Executive director

Already, the outfit has named former Jubilee secretary-general Raphael Tuju as the Executive Director of the Azimio secretariat to coordinate all member parties, including leading a team to deliberate on zoning.

 “He (Tuju) will lead the strategic and programme teams that will work to ensure Azimio victory in the August elections,” Mr Odinga’s spokesperson Dennis Onyango said in a statement to newsrooms yesterday.

The announcement came barely 24 hours after Mr Musyoka, a senior member of the coalition party, revealed that Mr Tuju had been nominated to map the way on zoning to avoid sibling rivalry by Azimio member parties.

“We have nominated Raphael Tuju to sit as chair and he will be assisted by the political parties’ secretaries-general – Shakila Abdalla, Sifuna (Edwin) for ODM, Kioni (Jeremiah) for Jubilee, and others,” said Mr Musyoka.

“We want to look into all these and say for instance in Nairobi, Nakuru and Mombasa the coalition political party will have to agree on a single candidate and running mate in case of the gubernatorial position. These are matters of strategy to boost our numbers.”

Up to the task

On Wednesday, Mr Tuju said he was up to the task, but agreed that the zoning would not be an easy undertaking.

“I’ll be holding critical meeting with all the parties involved and as soon as we deal with these we will announce,” Mr Tuju told the Nation.

He, however, did not disclose how his team will handle regions such as Lower Eastern where Mr Musyoka’s Wiper is presumed to be dominant, yet all the three governors in the area – Kitui’s Charity Ngilu (Narc), Dr Mutua and Prof Kibwana – have their own parties.

It will also be interesting to see how Azimio will address Western region where ODM and DAP-K claim dominance, as well as Mt Kenya region where Jubilee, Martha Karua’s Narc-Kenya and Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi’s Devolution Empowerment Party (DEP) exist. ODM also claims Coast and could be headed for a brawl with Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi’s Pamoja African Alliance, Wiper and Jubilee.

Sleepless nights

In Siaya, former Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo who teamed up with ex-police spokesperson Charles Owino in the United Democratic Movement (UDM) to face Senator James Orengo in the gubernatorial contest, is also causing sleepless nights to ODM.

“UDM has not and will not withdraw the certificate issued to our candidate in Siaya,” secretary-general David Ohito said Wednesday.

In Kakamega, a clash between ODM and DAP-K is looming in the gubernatorial contest pitting ODM’s Fernandez Barasa against Kakamega deputy Governor Philip Kutima and Lugari MP Ayub Savula of DAP-K.

As Azimio “big brothers” strategise on the winning formula, the affiliates within the coalition party feel zoning will render them irrelevant. 

“Contrary to promises made to us by our major partners Jubilee and ODM that there will be no zoning and no joint nominations, we are appalled by the turn of events where we are now being told that a team has been set up to address zoning.

“It is unfortunate that we are being told this when the March 26 deadline for joining parties has elapsed and we already registered aspirants for various seats. The question now is, where will we take our aspirants if particular regions are reserved for particular parties?” posed a secretary-general of one of the Azimio parties who did not wish to be named.

The joint nominations would also disadvantage the small parties since the new law requires that only registered party members participate in party primaries, thus the big parties with large membership would dominate the seats.

“Zoning will obviously mean that the big parties such as Jubilee, ODM, Wiper and probably DAP-K are the ones that will benefit to our disadvantage,” another official said. They added that zoning will deprive them of candidates in the election and thus bar them from benefiting from the political parties funds, despite the amendment to the new Political Parties Act, which addressed the matter.