President William Ruto has ordered for the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) grassroots elections amid behind-the-scenes lobbying to have the 14 Kenya Kwanza Alliance affiliate parties dissolve as part of 2027 grand plan. Dr Ruto seeks to have the party conduct grassroots elections from the polling stations all the way to the national level starting February next year.
The exercise is designed to strengthen the party's structure as the outfit with the largest number of elected leaders seeks to expand its influence in areas it does not enjoy substantive following.
Party elections have always remained emotive if not conducted in a transparent manner and have ended up causing defections of disgruntled members.
UDA secretary-general Veronica Maina yesterday confirmed the planned February party elections. She, however, did not give further details of the exercise that has the potential of making or breaking the outfit.
A source within the party told the Nation yesterday that President Ruto will be operating from the party’s headquarters once every month as he juggles running the Executive while keeping a pulse on the operations of the party.
“We are in preparations for grassroots polls next year and the president has indicated that he will be operating from the party offices once every month,” said a party official.
The current UDA party officials were never elected but appointed and now the party leader wants them to seek members’ support.
UDA chairman Johnson Muthama told the Nation that the party leader has issued instructions to conduct its elections as soon as possible noting that it is likely to take place in February 2023.
Mr Muthama says that conducting the election will be part of UDA’s plan to strengthen itself ahead of the 2027 General Election.
“The party leader told me that we need to conduct elections as soon as possible and that means that we will have them at the beginning of the new year,” said Mr Muthama.
The decision to conduct the elections comes in the backdrop of a push to have affiliate parties fold to join UDA in creating a juggernaut to dominate the political landscape.
It also comes after party leaders of Kenya Kwanza partners resigned from their official party positions to take up cabinet secretary positions. Chief CS Musalia Mudavadi has resigned as Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader.
Foreign Affairs CS Alfred Mutua and Trade CS Moses Kuria have all resigned as party leaders of Maendeleo Chap Chap and Chama cha Kazi party leaders, respectively. Yesterday, ANC secretary-general Simon Gikuru said it was premature for the ruling alliance to start talking about mergers. Mr Gikuru said the alliance’s priority right now is service delivery to the people.
“I am not aware of any merger plans. We will continue to operate as partner parties under Kenya Kwanza,” said Mr Gikuru. “People just voted the other day. What is of priority at the moment is to deliver the promises that we made to the people. We had a clear pre-election agreement that the President has since honoured in his appointments,” he said.
At the same time, Democratic Party of Kenya (DP), National Agenda Party of Kenya (NAP-K), Chama Cha Mashinani and Grand Dream Development Party (GDDP) have formally joined Kenya Kwanza through a post –election deal.
In a notice, the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) said “the political parties entered into a post-election coalition with Kenya Kwanza Alliance (KKA) and are confirmed to be in accordance with the Act and the party constitution and rules.”
Key Dr Ruto allies who have landed state jobs to serve in the Cabinet plus those set to serve as Principal Secretaries (PS) and Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) will however be locked out from holding party positions.
“Qualification number one will be being a Kenyan and a registered member of the party. Others are just formalities and that tells you that even elected officials who are interested will participate in the exercise because nothing is stopping them from participating in it,” said Mr Muthama.
Mr Muthama argues that modalities which will be used during the party polls whether it will be secret ballot or not will be decided upon later.
He also added that party elections will allow UDA to be big while imploring their colleagues in Kenya Kwanza to fold up their parties and join UDA.
Mr Muthama underscored that UDA will not force any political party to dissolve and join it, but they want to form a bigger and stronger party ahead of 2027.
"We want to go to the 2027 election as a political party known as UDA. Our election will be about the party now and that is why we are conducting elections at the grassroots. Anyone who feels like she wants to fold their party and join UDA, the doors are open,” the UDA chairman said.
Mr Muthama said although the Kenya Kwanza affiliate parties are still independent, every party is entitled to strengthen itself and that is what UDA is working on.
Initially, President Ruto’s party was forced not to conduct elections because it was going to lock out a number of lawmakers who were still in Jubilee Party and with UDA now set to conduct its polls early next year, it has given a number of MPs who are interested to participate.
“Political parties fear holding grassroots elections most of the time due to fear of infiltration by opponents, and also for fear of sabotage, and disruptions by goons sponsored opponents with various political ends in mind,” said political analyst Javas Bigambo.
Similar sentiments were echoed by Masindi Muliro University don Egara Kabaji who said party elections have been sowing discord in parties and such fallout if not well-managed, lead to mass defections dwindling the fortunes of the party
“Grassroot elections mean trouble to all of the political parties and in most cases, they cannot manage fallouts,” said Prof Kabaji.
University of Nairobi don XN Iraki argued that in most cases, most political leaders risk losing their positions making them not told such exercises.
“Political party leaders know that they could lose their seats if grassroots elections are held. They will lose control of the ‘power system’ that goes with political parties,” Prof Iraki.
