Why Mudavadi's ANC wants to end merger with Ruto's UDA

Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi chats with President William Ruto at a past meeting at Nyayo Stadium. [File, Standard]

The High Court ruling that dismissed the Amani National Congress (ANC) Party and the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party merger portends another legal landmine for President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza coalition after interim ANC party leader Stephen Mutoro yesterday announced that the agreement is legally dead.

Mutoro, who successfully challenged the merger between the two parties at the High Court, has since installed himself as the interim party leader. Yesterday, he announced that a temporary party leadership team would be announced in two weeks’ time with a key agenda being the reconsideration of ANC’s relationship with UDA.

The merger between ANC and UDA was announced on January 17 last year during a ceremony at State House, Nairobi. ANC was officially gazetted by the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties as dissolved on March 14, 2025, following a National Delegates Congress held on February 7, 2025.

Justice Bahati Mwamuye on Thursday ruled that the merger violated the rights of party members due to a lack of proper consultation.

Yesterday, Mutoro announced that a temporary party leadership team would be announced in two weeks’ time, with a key agenda being the reconsideration of ANC’s relationship with UDA.

“The MoU was drawn by people who are no longer officials and is therefore dead now. Our decisions will also be premised on the fact that UDA had not honoured their 2022 pre-election pact where 30 per cent of government was to be shared out to ANC,” Mutoro told the Saturday Standard.

Party assets

He also declared that they will going into another battle to recover party assets, which the court said were illegally  transferred to UDA by former ANC party leader and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.

In an exclusive interview, Mutoro argued that by dint of the court ruling nullifying the merger between ANC and UDA, all its organs had been revived and that it would chart an independent path moving forward.

“I have consulted members, and we already have a team ready to take up the leadership positions. It will be announced when we have a general consensus. So we’re not going to be rushed,” he said.

“One of the decisions that will be made is whether we want to keep the relationship of ANC with the UDA coalition. The second will be the replacement of the late nominated MP Joe Hamisi.”

Mutoro also stated that Mudavadi had effectively ceased being ANC’s party leader, further accusing him of “selling the party for his own political survival.”

“This idea of people putting political parties in their pockets, and then using them to get political appointments for themselves and family members is wrong.

‘‘Mudavadi forgot he committed a party to 30 per cent appointments in government,” said Mutoro.

Olive branch

He said not honouring the deal was an insult to ANC members and an affront to political parties that are now not being taken seriously, yet they are supposed to be the bedrock of democracy.

He, however, extended an olive branch to Mudavadi and Lamu Governor Issa Timamy, who has also since decamped from ANC and taken up the role of second deputy party leader in UDA, albeit on condition that their re-admission would be in line with the internal party processes.

“If Mudavadi is willing to rejoin our party, he will join us like any other member and at the relevant time if he wants to contest for any position, he will. But as it is, the party is back,” he observed.

Pressed to answer on who declared him the interim party leader just a day after the High Court decision, Mutoro explained that given the fact that the party leadership had decamped to UDA, any rightful member of the party was eligible to being an interim leader.

“I declared that by the time I went to court. It is by mere fact that I’m the one who initiated the process and led the process of recovering the party,” he added.”

Through a statement, UDA claimed that ANC ceased to exist following a voluntary dissolution last year, arguing that the High Court decision was based on an incorrect assumption that the two parties merged.

Timamy said the court ruling had been overtaken by events: “I would like to state categorically that the court ruling on the purported ANC–UDA merger is a matter that events have overtaken.”

Gazette notice

He cited a gazette notice issued on March 14, 2025, by the then Registrar of Political Parties, Ann Nderitu, which, according to UDA, formally communicated the dissolution of ANC following a resolution by its members.

“For the record, on March 14, 2025, vide Kenya Gazette Notice No 3449, the then Registrar of Political Parties notified the public that the ANC, at its special National Delegates Congress held on February 7, 2025, dissolved in line with its party constitution,” Timamy said.

The UDA deputy party leader was insistent that the decision by ANC delegates constituted a voluntary dissolution under the Political Parties Act, rather than a merger with another political party.

“Clearly, what was done was a voluntary dissolution by the ANC party through its members, and therefore, the matter of the ANC having ‘merged’ with UDA is, with respect, not factual. ”

He added: “To state that the ‘merger’ has been declared unlawful by the court is to address a situation that, according to our records, never existed.”