Samwel Kumba
11 October 2008
Nairobi — Lucy Ndung'u, the newly appointed Registrar of Political Parties at Electoral Commission of Kenya has her job well cut out for her.
She has been handed the unenviable task of reining in wayward parties that for years operated without any regulation, leading to chaos in the political landscape.
But the real test for her will commence after the December 31, 2008 deadline for parties to comply with the Political Parties Act that demands the parties to carry out far-reaching internal re-organisation.
An inquiry by Sunday Nation revealed that almost all the political parties were busy putting their houses in order. Kanu, which prides itself in being the country's oldest political party, says it only needs to fill a few vacant positions left by rebel leaders who quit in the run-up to last year's General Election.
Former Siakago MP Justine Muturi, the party's legal advisor, said among the slots to be filled are those left by Agriculture minister William Ruto, Public Service minister Dalmas Otieno and their Industrialisation counterpart Henry Kosgey.
"As we comply with the Act, we must also comply with our own constitution and rules. For us the members required by the Act are a joke. We have far too many members according to our records," said Mr Muturi.
Reminded that most of them voted for PNU in last year's elections, Mr Muturi maintained they were still Kanu members, this notwithstanding.
He said that the few vacant posts will be at the national level. He repeated the statement of party chairman Uhuru Kenyatta that the party will celebrate its 50th anniversary in two years. Mr Kenyatta is also Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade.
According to Mr Muturi, Kanu does not need to print new cards "as our current membership might be running close to four million."
Mr Kenyatta was elected on January 5, 2005 with a mandate to steer the party for the next five years. This came in the wake of a directive by then Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Kiraitu Murungi, that parties carry out elections.
On the other hand, PNU, which most people consider a conglomerate of political parties rather than a single party, launched its election and recruitment drive launched but not effectively. However, PNU secretary-general Albert Muriuki told Sunday Nation that the process is going very well.
"Recruitment is a continuous process. We have distributed membership cards in almost every constituency," he said.
Mr Muriuki said the party would start training its constituency coordinators at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi on Monday. The training will run for a week.
"We will have the first group of 60 coming from all the constituencies in Central Province, Lower Eastern with Kajiado North, Central and South as well as Narok North and South with Kilgoris closing the list," he said.
Mr Muturi sounded optimistic that PNU would easily comply with the Act, arguing that even though the law requires membership at the district level, they had gone down to the village level in their recruitment drive.
The party will hold branch elections early next month. But a date for the national polls will be fixed, and the notice for campaigns will be issued at a meeting later this week.
ODM, which is considered the largest party in the country is said to have complied with the Act, save for different sets of leaders in place. The Party's National Elections Board secretary, Dr Joseph Misoi said the grassroots election programme has been finalised.
"We have already received about 1.5 million membership cards to supplement what had been in circulation. In total, we will be having about three million cards," Dr Misoi told Sunday Nation. He said the party is still recruiting members while updating its register.
"We have already appealed to various aspirants to apply and wait for the party to announce the official campaign period which is usually 21 days to the election date slated for November 22 to 24," said Dr Misoi.
He disclosed that NEB will be meeting this Wednesday to decide on the mode of election depending on the cost and the views of the members.
And the party's Director of Communications, Ahamed Hash said they have invited candidates interested in the branch chairmanships and other positions at party headquarters to familiarise themselves with the rules and regulations that will govern their elections.
Dr Misoi added that the party has to look at everything in context of the new Act. "We don't want other parties to ride on the ODM wave. They can be corporate members after they have complied with the Act," he said.
And talking of other parties riding the ODM wave, some like United Democratic Movement have declared that they are running their own battle.
Opponents
UDM Chairman Rev Paul Cheboi said the party has been recruiting members since last year.
"Soon we are going to roll out an election programme. The recruitment board is organising the exercise which we will announce before the end of November," he said.
He said UDM is working in partnership with ODM although it is independent and guided by its own policies. He is optimistic that they will beat the deadline of compliance with the Act. Asked whether ODM is a threat to their network in Rift Valley, the chairman said the party is their opponent in the province.
"But they will not be able to throw out our network. We are ready to wrestle them down. We don't count them as giants yet. We are not underrating them though," said Rev Cheboi. He is confident that given that their aspirants were a close second and Sports Minister Helen Sambili emerged top, they would soon neutralise ODM's strength in the region.
"UDM is trying to instill the fear of God in our members to help wipe out political hatred and ethnicity. Our symbol--a can of milk--signifies peace and a sign of humanity," he said, adding that the party would soon call the 210 representatives from the country's constituencies for a retreat to fine tune plans for the elections.
This they intend to do before the end of the month.
ODM-Kenya has not been left behind. Party chairman Samuel Poghisio, contacted by Sunday Nation on his return from Japan, said they are on track.
"We are soon launching the grass roots recruitments, and we have set our dates which we will be releasing this week. We had a retreat where we sorted out all these issues," said Mr Poghisio, who is also the minister for Information and Communication.
Other parties are also expected to comply before December 31 after which Ms Ndung'u is expected to crack the whip on those who fail to heed the Political Parties Act.
It is considered to be very ambitious, and Kenyans should not be surprised if certain parts of the Act soon attract heated discussions followed possibly by significant amendments.
For example, Section 14 (1) requires that the Registrar of Political parties, "shall not register a political party which... is founded on an ethnic basis", or provides for discrimination of any kind.
Registrar's decision
Similarly, Section 14(2) states that a political party can be de-registered "if its structure and mode of operation are not national in character. The question that many politicians are asking is the criteria what would be used by the Registrar to determine that such requirements are met.
Even if the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (created by Section 5 and whose role is spelled out in Section 6) can overrule the Registrar's decisions, this provision, it is believed, would appear to give leeway to the holder of the office to kill parties that, for one reason or the other, are considered "a danger" to the nation.
But the most contentious part is Section 17 (4) which states that a person who, while a member of a political party, forms another political party; joins in the formation of another party; joins another political party or in any way, publicly advocates for the formation of another political party will be deemed to have resigned from the first party.
Only time will tell whether politicians will live up to the challenge this section poses to them and their ambitions.
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