President Uhuru Kenyatta's party ready for takeoff as battle for delegates looms

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto receive instruments of the Jubilee Party from Senator Kiraitu Murungi and former Cabinet Minister Noah Wekesa at State House, Nairobi, on Friday. [PHOTO:PSCU]

The battle for the control of the Jubilee Party is now shaping up after President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that it will finally be launched in mid-September.

All affiliate parties are focused on the joint National Delegates Conference (NDC) where the Jubilee merger will officially take place after the dissolution of 11 parties.

Officials said the mid-September date, which President Kenyatta announced at State House on Friday, was reached after a merger steering committee meeting held at Deputy President William Ruto’s residence in Nairobi on Monday.

“The merger deadline was pushed forward because other than New Ford Kenya that has already committed to dissolution, all other affiliate parties have to hold National Executive Council (NEC) and National Governing Council (NCG) meetings, which would require notices of two weeks apart,” said a steering committee member.

Upper hand

The discussions also centred on the preparedness of the 14 affiliate parties that have so far committed to dissolve. But the battle for numbers will revolve around the decision that each party presents 20 delegates from branches where it is active.

That means TNA will produce the majority of delegates because of its presence in Mt Kenya, parts of Rift Valley and Nairobi followed by Ruto’s URP, while the rest of the group will be left to feed on the little that will be left. New Ford Kenya will stake its claim for Trans Nzoia and Bungoma, Grand National Union (GNU) will contest for Nyeri while the Alliance Party of Kenya (APK) will bank on Meru.

“Essentially, it means the main parties such as TNA and URP will have an upper hand at the NDC expected to be held at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in mid September,” said an outspoken MP from Nyeri County.

In an interview, Jubilee merger co-chair Noah Wekesa said President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto will get the two top party positions and exercise a big say on the composition of the interim party structures at national level.

After the Kasarani NDC, a 20-member steering committee of interim officials is to be elected at national level while 20-member interim branch officials will be set up at county level and tasked with setting up party structures at the sub-county and ward levels.

At the secretariat level, according to TNA Secretary General Onyango Oloo who headed the merger steering committee on Legal Affairs, his party and URP would surrender their infrastructure, staff and structures to the new outfit to hit the ground running. It would essentially mean the interim JP party secretariat will be under control of TNA and URP Executive Directors Joseph Maathai and David Koech respectively, although most of the parties have demanded that their own EDs be given junior roles to protect their interests.

Koech, who met his party officials and aspirants from Mt Kenya East early this week in Meru, is said to have assured the apprehensive members that there was a general agreement to have every affiliate party represented in the secretariat to create fairness when the time comes for party primaries.

He made the assurance after aspirants expressed fear that the dominant parties in the region — TNA and Kiraitu Murungi’s APK — would dominate, perhaps unfairly, and influence the outcome of the primaries.

Some URP delegates had claimed in the closed door meeting that influential leaders in the two sister parties were already spreading word that they had secured direct tickets for seats they will be vying for in next year’s elections. In an interview in June, Oloo said he was confident the new party had sufficient time to endear itself to the grassroots as elections were still more than a year away.

“We launched TNA in June 2012 and the last general elections were due in March 2013, yet we did not even have the benefit of incumbency and name recognition that the Jubilee brand enjoys,” Oloo said in the interview.

Ford People leader Albert Nyaundi said the postponement of the merger deadline was godsend as it would enable the parties to consolidate their support in their strongholds.

Speaking after a delegation of elected Kisii County political leaders visited President Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi, to express a desire to join Jubilee Party, Nyaundi said the focus was currently on Ford People after New Ford Kenya made the first bold step about dissolution.

“The party is keen to make inroads into areas like Kisii where they believe there is a room for improvement of the 2013 results and we are sure that we are doing quite well,” said Nyaundi.

It has also emerged that the JP constitution has in fact created room for pre and post-election coalitions. Although the leadership of the Jubilee coalition had indicated the objective of the new party would be to form one strong political movement, hence dissolution of both TNA and URP, it appears that a polygamous arrangement has been anticipated.

On both the pre-election and post-election coalitions, the JP constitution is explicit. “The National Executive Committee may pass a resolution to enter into a pre-election coalition with any political party or parties.

Tourism CS Najib Balala said: “We are trying to unify Kenyans and our political entity, the Republican Congress Party (RC) fully supports the dissolution of affiliate Jubilee political parties.” He compared the current scenario to what transpired in 2002, when like-minded parties joined Narc under the rainbow coalition and when parties ganged up to reject the Wako draft of the constitution in 2005.

“Again, we teamed up after that and formed ODM which swept the tide. This is an opportunity for us to defeat tribalism and regionalism and unite all Kenyans,” said Balala.

—Aditional reporting by Mwaniki Munuhe