We need strong parties to enhance democracy

Aden Duale

NAIROBI: Few would gainsay the fact that strong political parties are essential for a vibrant and true democracy. Our democracy will only mature if we kick out tribal-based affiliations and move to political parties grounded on ideological foundation.
In Jubilee, we realise that for our democracy to firm up and confer to all Kenyans the benefits of a free society, we have to severe links with parochial and primordial loyalties. Our merger of URP, TNA and 12 other parties such as APK, NFK, CCU, GNU, Ford People, New Ford Kenya, UDF and others into one formidable party speaks to our unequivocal resolve to take our politics to the next level.
We must move away from the current objectionable situation where parties are merely used as vehicles for elections to an era where they are important institutions of democracy. Granted, we have made notable progress in the realm of democracy. However, we are still a long way from nurturing vibrant political parties without which we will not sufficiently consolidate our democratic gains.

What we have currently are mainly briefcase outfits in the name of political parties. These outfits undermine national cohesion and our development efforts. They are invariably used to propagate ethnic divisions that have for long been the bane of our progress. Besides, they foster unhealthy, nay harmful, ethnic competition in the sharing of the national resources as they entrench the repulsive eating mentality because by nature they are exclusive. Such outfits spell doom for a country like ours which is populated by diverse groups of people. We do not need to be reminded about how corrosive ethnic-based politics is. We have witnessed horrendous conflicts emanating from sectarian animosities. That these senseless conflicts erupts around elections speaks volumes of how dangerous parochial and exclusive political formations are.
When politics shift from the narrow footpath of tribalism to the broad plane of ideas, democracy begins to take its true shape.