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.