Mudavadi team seeks consensus instead of vote

By Mwaniki Munuhe

NAIROBI; KENYA: Confusion reigns in the Jubilee Alliance as the three main parties push competing proposals on how to select their presidential candidate on Monday.

As two of the parties prepare for a vote on Monday, a third is trying to avoid it.

This even as a new opinion poll showed that any possible Jubilee ticket would lose to their main rivals in the Cord alliance unless they can win over undecided voters.

Whereas the United Republican Party and The National Alliance prefer selecting their candidate through a delegate system, United Democratic Forum favours “consensus”. Credible sources say a plan to hold a ‘presidential electoral college’ is at risk unless the leaders of the alliance find time to meet and resolve the emerging differences.

The alliance is trying to decide whether Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, 51, or his counterpart Musalia Mudavadi, 52, should head the ticket. Whereas Uhuru’s TNA wants a delegates system representative of the membership of the party, William Ruto’s URP prefers a model where all the three parties will have an equal number of delegates. TNA, however, wanted the Eldoret North MP’s party left out in the process on the grounds that it is not a contestant for the top seat.

URP has fought against this idea.

“United Republican Party is a key member of the coalition,“ said Dujis MP Aden Duale. “We will participate in the nomination of the coalition presidential flag bearer.”

But there is a bigger problem brewing: Some in the Jubilee Alliance believe UDF got a better deal than both Kenyatta’s TNA and Ruto’s URP in their December 4 agreement.

“UDF got a deal too good for their contribution in the alliance,” said a member of the negotiating panel who did not want to be quoted to avoid jeopardising his position.

According to the coalition agreement deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties, the candidate who will lose in the presidential nominations will automatically become the Leader of Majority in Parliament and a 33 per cent share in government.

However, clause 5.2 of the agreement, a copy of which we have obtained, provides that parties that will provide the president and deputy president shall cede some of these entitlements as may be negotiated by the coalition partners.

“Without prejudice to the above the parties that will provide presidential and deputy presidential candidates shall cede some of their entitlement under the formula for allocation as may be negotiated by coalition partners,” the section reads in part.

Clause 4.1 of the agreement reads: “The presidential candidate of the coalition shall be nominated from TNA or UDF within 14 days of the execution of this addendum.”

As at yesterday, UDF was still pushing for a consensus as opposed to the nominations even as it emerged that both TNA and URP had proceeded in making arrangements for a nomination process on Monday. In fact, TNA national chairman Johnson Sakaja and Dujis MP Aden Duale, a close confidant of URP leader William Ruto, told The Standard On Saturday that preparation were under way and that Moi International Sports Centre Kasarani where the meeting was scheduled to take place had been booked.

Preparation in top gear

“Preparation for Monday are on top gear, we are prepared for the event and I can tell you the venue has also been booked as we wait to nominate the Jubilee presidential candidate in a free and fair process that respects the will of the people,” said TNA national Chairman Johnson Sakaja.

“Our technical teams are working on the finer details of the delegates systems as preparations for the nominations on Monday get underway,” said Duale.

Embakasi MP and Water Assistant Minister Ferdinand Waititu told The Standard On Saturday he had already assembled at least 1,000 delegates on behalf of TNA even as it emerged a few legislators had been tasked to do a similar activity.

But UDF differed sharply with plans for nominations on Monday on the grounds that the party had not been notified of any such plans and that it is not logistically possible to carry out nominations on Monday because the three principals would be on a campaign trail beginning yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

“As far as we are concerned, there are no nominations on Monday. We are not even aware of any plans. Logistically, it would not be possible to do so because the three principals will be attending a public rally in Narok today, (yesterday), they will be in western Kenya on Saturday (today) and in central Kenya on Sunday (tomorrow),” said UDF communications director Mundia Muchiri.

The coalition agreement deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties provides strictly for a nomination process within 14 days of December 4 (by December 18, 2012). According to the law, all agreements signed on or before December 4 are legally binding and signatories are bound to abide the conditions thereof.

This came, as it emerged that technical teams within the alliance had agreed on a delegates system with each of the three parties bringing on board 1,500 delegates. Also to attend the event will be 200 invited guests among them key leaders in the African region and observers from across East African region.

Water Minister Charity Ngilu is expected to sign an agreement with the coalition during the event while TNA is expected to accommodate Mvita MP Najib Balala’s Conservative Party as UDF takes care of Kanu.

But UDF Chairman Hassan Osman who is also a member of the technical team vehemently denied that any such resolutions had been reached saying: “I have not seen any such report myself. We are not done with our work neither have we presented any reports to the principals. Treat that alleged report as porojo (rumours).”