Biwott party to hold NDC, choose coalition Saturday

Gubernatorial aspirant Elgeyo Marakwet County Eng. Anthony Chelimo. He is vying for the seat on a National Vision Party ticket. [Peter Ochieng, Standard]

The National Vision Party (NVP) will hold its National Delegates Conference (NDC) in Nairobi this weekend.

The party founded by former Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott (deceased) is seeking to field candidates for several elective positions countrywide.

NVP chairperson Mr Anthony Chelimo said the conference will be at Nyayo National Stadium gymnasium on Saturday. It is during the NDC that the party will also declare its stand on the political coalition of choice.

“We are preparing for the NDC meeting whose agenda will include inauguration of NVP party leader, installation of trustees and the election of National Executive Committee (NEC) members,” Mr Chelimo told The Standard in Eldoret.

“NVP has tried. Its activities had slowed down after the demise of the party founder, but it is now regaining its influence, and it has aspirants who will be contesting in various parts of the country. We invite more aspirants to vie on the party ticket,” said Mr Chelimo.

The party, he said, will not be holding primaries. “We've already notified IEBC on our process in primaries... we are not going into nominations. We have an elections disputes board that will pick one candidate in areas where we have several aspirants so that we present a single candidate,” he stated.

This, Mr Chelimo added, will see NVP prepare its list of candidates to be forwarded to IEBC as other political parties go into party primaries.

He said new officials would steer NVP into being a stronger formation and also seek partners through coalitions as it seeks to take an active role in building the country’s economy.