Why coalitions have failed leadership test

History of Kenya’s political parties shows large coalitions have not survived for long since the advent of multi-party politics in 1992.

This is due to competing interests and lust for power. Kenyans will therefore, be watching how far the new Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP), formed by the ruling coalition’s two main partners - The National Alliance (TNA) and the United Republican Party (URP) - goes given there are already voices of disapproval from within.

And it is not only TNA and URP headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto respectively which have merged, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) has also had merger calls in recent months, but the three main parties forming it remain distinct.

In early 1990s, the original Forum for Restoration of Democracy (FORD), a pressure group that was later to be transformed into a political party by the likes of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Masinde Muliro, Martin Shikuku and Kenneth Matiba later split due to competing interests.

Apart from FORD, other major coalitions to have split include the Orange Movement, formed after the 2005 referendum, where the Orange brigade floored the ‘Bananas’, the Narc coalition and the Party of National Unity (PNU).

Stringent conditions

Not even introduction of the Political Parties Act (2011), meant to professionalise and streamline party operations, has helped bring sanity into the way political parties operate, with some being largely briefcase parties that shoot-up whenever elections are around the corner to make a kill from nomination fees.

According to the Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u, there are 59 registered political parties in the country, with six still awaiting registration, out of which only three-TNA, URP and ODM, benefit from State funding due to stringent conditions under the Act.

Down memory lane, in the case of FORD, it first split into two, with Jaramogi leading Ford-Kenya and Matiba leading Ford-Asili. Both contested the presidency in the first multi-party election of December 1992, and lost to the then ruling party Kanu.

The Ford family parties were later to multiply further, with Ford-People emerging. Simeon Nyachae contested for the presidency on the party ticket in 2002 but failed.

Later, New Ford-Kenya, born out of political differences between the Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang’ula, and former Justice Minister Eugene Wamalwa emerged.

Attempts of re-uniting the Ford family political parties has been on, a hint that was sometimes back given by Wamalwa, but has so far borne no fruit. “There have been plans of the Ford family parties coming together. It is an issue we had discussed with Ford-People party leader Henry Obwocha among others,” said in an earlier interview.

For the Orange movement, former Prime minister and CORD leader Raila Odinga and former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka parted ways ahead of the 2007 General Election.

Raila contested the presidency on an ODM ticket while Kalonzo on an ODM-Kenya ticket, but both lost to retired President Mwai Kibaki who ran on PNU in what has become the bungled presidential contest that led to post-election violence of 2007/08. While ODM still stands, ODM-K was re

-branded to Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM), still under Kalonzo’s leadership.

For the original Ford and later the Orange, their defeats in the 1992 and 2007 elections are largely attributed to the splits, which saw voters in their strong bases also divide votes to hand victories to their rivals.

Campaign vehicle

The Narc coalition, which was Kibaki’s presidential campaign vehicle in 2002, did not also last more than five years, as he changed the vehicle to PNU in 2007.

The original Narc brought together the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Party, Ford-Kenya and the National Alliance Party of Kenya.

Currently, there are two political parties associated with Narc- Narc linked to Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu and Narc-Kenya, headed by former minister Martha Karua, who un-successfully contested the presidency in 2013.

PNU however, lost momentum following the death of its leader, former Security Minister Prof George Saitoti in 2012.

With Saitoti gone, the party lost strength with its key leaders; former minister Gideon Konchellah and Starehe MP Maina Kamanda opting to seek other political vehicles.