Political parties should be ideologically defined

While the Jubilee coalition has been more successful in this respect, even for CORD, the indiscipline of the past where political units and personalities outside the core leadership had significant gravitas and could pursue objectives outside the major party lines is slowly dwindling. PHOTO: COURTESY

For those of us who hope Kenya’s politics would evolve towards fewer and more settled political outfits, the last couple of weeks have given reason for cautious optimism. The two main political coalitions have gone out of their way to show strength, consolidate their bases and reduce internal dissent as we head to the polls.

While the Jubilee coalition has been more successful in this respect, even for CORD, the indiscipline of the past where political units and personalities outside the core leadership had significant gravitas and could pursue objectives outside the major party lines is slowly dwindling.

People like Ababu Namwamba who decamped from ODM, but could not jump into Jubilee, have found the going tough and may have to slink back home or like James Rege, unabashedly join Jubilee. We seem to be heading to the inevitability of two or three political parties, hopefully with support across the country.

 The signs of this were obvious in the passage of the IEBC report. While many individual actors in the disparate political unions were obviously unhappy with parts of the agreement, particularly the no party-hopping rule, members in both coalitions were easily whipped into supporting the agreement and the traditional “cant sign, won’t sign” were but a whimper. For once, many politicians signed a deal which they instinctively distrusted.

Many understood, however, that space outside the main political outfits was shrinking and did not wish to be openly identified as saboteurs as this would come at great political cost. While one may disagree with the tactics used to push party lines, the reality is that in a multi-party environment where persons have the political choice to move to other parties, there can be no space for indiscipline within parties.

Next after the IEBC agreement was the merger of Jubilee allies. Of course even as one observes the razzmatazz, there is a déjà vu feel that we have been here before. The Kanu-NDP merger, the NAK-LDP merger and the PNU merger are recent events complete with dazzling pomp and circumstance whose marriage only lasted one election cycle.

What is slightly different about the Jubilee merger is that the principal parties in the merger are going into two elections with largely the same alignment.

Even for CORD, initial indications are that the party will seek elections in the same general framework as 2013. If this were to happen, this would also be a historical first post-Kanu; similar political outfits competing in more than one election. For these initial developments to metamorphose into strong party institutions, several things will have to occur.

The parties will have to develop internal party mechanisms that allow for more consensus building on critical issues and more effective internal conflict resolution. The “sign on dotted line or else” tactic that was evident in the IEBC saga cannot sustain institutions for the long term. Internal party democracy will also be the foundation of the sustainability of the no party-hopping rule.

Many aspirants watching the goings on at both coalitions want to be assured that signing into the “no get out” rule is not suicidal; that they will be allowed to fairly compete in the nominations and there are no sacred cows whose seats are already assured. Thirdly, I strongly suggest that to build strong parties especially in the period before the elections, the party leadership be left to persons who are notinvolved in competitive politics. Both in reality and perception, persons seeking political office will subvert the nomination process to their benefit. That will sound the death knell of the parties.

Finally, one hopes that parties will evolve into ideologically defined outfits. The copy-pasting of policies and programmes makes today’s parties indistinguishable.

Even on such issue as basic strategy the parties sometimes look astoundingly similar. I was personally disappointed when CORD, which had initially blasted Jubilee’s showbizz, replicated the same grandeur at its Mombasa 10 out of 10 show.

I expected them to try steal the thunder from Jubilee in a philosophically different show. For persons who wish to make choices based on policy and strategy, is there hope that the twin-like outlook of today’s parties will soon be a thing of the past?