Pre-election pact with United Democratic Front lapsed, says Kanu

Nick Salat                      PHOTO: COURTESY

KENYA: Former ruling party Kenya African National Union (Kanu) now says its pre-election pact with the United Democratic Front (UDF) party ended soon after the Amani coalition’s unsuccessful presidential bid in the last General Election.

The party’s officials said they could only engage with UDF as a distinct political outfit and would work together if there was a common interest.

Kanu Secretary General Nick Salat said the pact between the two parties in the run-up to the last General Election lapsed immediately Amani’s presidential candidate Musalia Mudavadi failed to clinch the top seat.

Key positions

“We entered a pre-election pact and that ended soon after we concluded the election. We supported him to win the presidency so that we could form a government but it failed and that was the end,” said Mr Salat.

He added after the election, they entered a post-election pact with the Jubilee administration in which some of their members would be given key positions.

He explained that Jubilee had a challenge in the Senate and if they did not join it, the scenario would be different and the outcome would have been tilted.

“Jubilee had a problem in the Senate and so we had an agreement to help them get the numbers otherwise things would be different. We agreed some of our members would be allowed to chair some parliamentary committees if we supported them,” said Salat.

Speaking to The Standard by phone yesterday, Salat maintained that the pact they signed had an exit clause but failed to divulge any more.

He said Kanu was worried about the current state of insecurity in the country and called on Jubilee leaders to ensure that Kenyans were safe.

He told President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto not to hesitate to crack the whip on top security personnel.

Party elections

“We are worried with the high level of insecurity. We support them but want them to deal with these issues. It is important that we are in the alliance but we cannot keep silent when things are not going in the right direction,” said Salat.

He also said the party was facing the challenge of holding party elections, noting they were not beneficiaries of the political parties’ funding that favoured only ODM, TNA and URP.

However, he called on party members to get ready for party polls early next year.