Via GMK reporters.
UDA Party is the fastest growing political party in Kenya. Having won several seats in various by-elections and being associated with the Deputy President, it seems UDA will be instrumental in forming the next government. As of today, over 1.3million Kenyans have registered to join the party in the on-going recruitment process.
Most of the aspirants who have ditched their former parties to join UDA have one main concern that made them leave and that is free and fair nominations. Party nominations are always chaotic due to bad management, nepotism and corruption where party officials sell nomination certificates to the highest bidder.
According to a source within UDA’s Party leadership, who declined to be named, claimed that the party is being held captive by sitting MPs who are shoving for party positions in order to guarantee seats at the negotiation table.
So far, the party secretariat has been crisscrossing the country assuring aspirants that the nominations will be free and fair but that just sounds good on paper. I say this because the same players who mismanaged the Jubilee Party nominations have been appointed to senior positions in UDA and signs are already there that there is nothing new they bring to the table.
Hon Moses Kuria was recently quoted saying that UDA is being driven by current MPs who are jostling for Party positions in order to guarantee their nomination certificates. These MPs brought their loyal supporters to be Constituency and Ward coordinators in order to use them to ignite their dwindling popularity. The coordinators are said to be frustrating aspirants in different counties being financed by sitting MPs. Even though most of the current MPs are not guaranteed of winning back their seats in next year’s General Election, they have made sure that aspirants do not meet and when they attempt they use their influence to send police to scuttle the meetings.
The party leadership has been assuring members that they will conduct party grassroot elections but all indications show that they will appoint party officials through boardroom deals who might be people proposed by sitting MPs using their closeness to the DP and the Party secretariat. This interim officials will conduct party nominations and this is a guarantee that the nominations will be manipulated in favor of certain candidates who are known by the officials. Ruto has on many occasions said that he would not repeat the same mistake they did while forming Jubilee Party where they appointed interim officials such as Tuju and Murathe, who ended up destroying the party. But by appointing the Secretary General, the same person who was part of Jubilee Party messy nominations, there is no assurance that UDA will conduct free, fair and credible elections.
In Kiambu County Jubilee Party nominations in 2017, the same officials in UDA Party today, cancelled the nominations when they realized that Hon Kabogo was winning and during the repeat polls, they changed all the Presiding Officers and Returning Officer in favor of Hon Waititu which guaranteed his victory;
In Nairobi County Hon Bishop Wanjiru was arrested and detained in police custody until the nomination process was over while Hon Sonko was given the party certificate. Are we going to experience the same bad manners in UDA Party?
Senator Susan Kihika who is the UDA Governor Aspirant for Nakuru County and Bahati MP Hon Kimani Ngunjiri have been engaged in a vicious fight from the day she declared her interest for the seat. Ngunjiri has been flip-flopping on his stand on BBI which he had previouly opposed but voted YES in parliament.
Senator Susan called him “unreliable, unstable and confused character”. It is not clear why Ngunjiri is against Susan’s candidature and whose interest is he advancing.
In Nakuru County, UDA Party has not been spared its share of division, factions and in-fighting.
In what seems like a battle of the titans, some coordinators have been working hard to block aspirants from meeting or even registering people to join UDA; they have been hiding the booklets and only giving them to the aspirants who are singing their tune. They have usurped self-imposed powers by dictating terms; they insist they are the only ones who can register members to join UDA and they are the only ones who can call aspirants for official meetings. They have also been using hooligans to intimidate any aspirant who is not in their line-up. This false sense of power is misplaced because UDA constitution does not have coordinator positions – it is only when the party conducts party elections that there will be bonifide party officials.
The main bone of contention is the seat of Nairobi County Governor. It is reported that there has been secret meetings taking place in a City Hotel owned by a nominated MP who is very vocal in fighting Ruto. From a source who requested to remain anonymous, the attendants in the meeting included a Nairobi businesswoman who has interests in the top County seat, a sitting senator who also has interests in the same seat and some coordinators. The businesswoman having realized that she won’t get the Jubilee Governor ticket, has been looking for a way to join UDA; she wants to take advantage of the fact that the UDA Secretary General is a close relative and friend a former Starehe MP, and the SG has been secretly and strategically supporting this move. The businesswoman has been bank-rolling and financing some Nairobi Coordinators, she even bought them uniforms in a meeting organized by a sitting MP from Embakasi Constituency; in the said meeting, an MP declared that she will vie as Governor
The main agenda of the meeting was to strategize how to frustrate one of the UDA Governor aspirants who is a strong grassroot mobilizer, has the support from the religious sector, the human capital and she has also been marshalling over 500 aspirants from all the 17 constituencies in Nairobi to support Dr. William Ruto to win the Presidency in 2022. The team led by the businesswoman and the senator are uncomfortable with the tele-evangelist cum politician because of her strong networks in the city and they plan to run as a team using the UDA Party. These two are the shadows behind the in-fighting within UDA in the last 2 months.
In Nyeri County, the coordinators feel frustrated by the UDA Party Patron who promised them money if they registered members to join UDA but after several weeks of work, he was not anywhere to be seen throwing the registration process into disarray.
A popular and vocal Coast Gubernatorial aspirant has also been over-heard complaining about being frustrated by the UDA secretary general. The aspirant said she is bossy, uncooperative and tribal. She has been meeting certain candidates of her choice promising them that she will ensure they clinch the party certificates during party nominations.
This uncalled for divisions in UDA has resulted in many aspirants seeking asylum in other smaller parties like PEP, TSP and others which are affiliated to the Deputy President.
Several aspirants who spoke to us insisted that the Party grassroot elections must be held as soon as possible and all positions from the Ward level to the Party Secretariat and NEC be made competitive; the era of appointing ‘interim officials’ must come to an end.
Via GMK reporters
