What ODM wrangles tell us about political parties

The ongoing tribulations within the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) are symptomatic of how far we remain from having the kinds of political parties we need to make government responsive to the needs of the people. Before proceeding further, I should make it clear that the failures of our political parties are not only limited to ODM.

Wiper and the Amani Coalition have also recently experienced internal wrangles arising from supremacy battles and quest for control over party resources. Furthermore, the same problems that plague the opposition parties are present within TNA and URP, the two ruling parties under the Jubilee Coalition. At the moment, the latter seem relatively more intact and better organised simply because of the promise of State largesse. Indeed one can argue, especially in the case of URP, that even State largesse has not been able to completely mask the lack of internal coherence in the party.

So what exactly ails our political parties? The simple answer is a singular lack of visionary leadership and a pervasive ‘jua kali’ mentality in the running of party affairs. These failures exist despite the noble aims of the framer of our Constitution who sought to promote the professionalisation of our parties by providing funding for the popular parties, and limiting the ability of politicians to opportunistically switch parties willy-nilly. Instead of having professionally run parties partly funded by the taxpayer, we still have entities that are owned by specific individuals. Wanjiku’s tax shillings are, therefore, being used to finance the personal political ambitions of individual fat cats without much benefit in terms of programmatic political parties that serve to link the Kenyan masses to their government institutions like Parliament and the Executive.

This is very unfortunate. After the sleek operation that was the TNA media operation and appearance of internal organisation during the run-up to the 2013 elections one would have thought that we were finally going to see an elevation of the game in terms of the management of political parties. Politics aside, TNA seemed to embody the face of the new party – well run, and able to connect directly to the needs of the people. In many ways it seemed and sounded like a people’s party. This was in contradistinction to CORD, whose chaotic nomination process and 1990s campaign strategy made it look tired and anachronistic. But alas, TNA’s sleek media campaign was just that - Long on colourful bells and whistles but very short on substance. The party has since gone quiet after initial squabbles over cash. The party, as an organisation, is just as badly run as any of the opposition parties, and has no control over the president’s agenda for the nation.

Which brings us back to ODM. For a party that prides itself in its centre-left philosophy, ODM has done precious little in addressing the needs of its millions of poor faithful. What is ODM’s programmatic agenda for Kenya? Why hasn’t the party attempted to coordinate the activities of its governors? Forget Okoa Kenya and the elitist jostling for power ahead of 2017 that we keep seeing in the media. What is the party doing for ‘mwananchi’? Shouldn’t Wanjiku be the focus of a truly left leaning party?

Given the geographic concentration of the governorships controlled by the alliances, it would have been quite easy for a party willing to showcase its ability to deliver for the people to coordinate policies among the counties it controlled. Messrs Odinga, Musyoka and Mudavadi would have concentrated their efforts in making sure that governors and MCAs delivered on roads, water, schools, hospitals, and electricity for ‘mwananchi’ at the grassroots. Such efforts would have provided a powerful argument for the need to devolve even more funds to the counties. It is sad that the fixation with State House continues to foreclose on any such development.
Instead, what we have is an exercise in putting the proverbial cart before the horse and asking for more funds with neither a proven track record nor the absorptive capacity to use the funds responsibly.

A great example of what Wananchi think of the county governments comes from a recent survey on perceptions of public services. More than half of Kenyans surveyed said they would rather have the national government run the health sector, a function that was devolved under the current Constitution. In other words, Kenyans do not trust their county governments to deliver. And one of the main reasons is because they feel that despite devolution, they still have no control over what elected officials do. By failing to link voters to their elected officials, our political parties are failing Wanjiku.