Jubilee should put its house in order for sake of the country

Prophets of doom have made their voices heard; the Jubilee Party is in the throes of death—flailing and gasping for air, fighting for survival.

Notably, the party was founded on September 8, 2016 after at least 11 Jubilee coalition affiliate parties agreed to dissolve and coalesce into one entity. The idea behind formation of the party was noble. Its architects wanted to do away with tribe-centred parties and come up with a behemoth that most communities, if not all, would feel comfortable in.

In short, they wanted Jubilee to reflect the face of Kenya, and to some extent they succeeded.

Importantly, they promised Jubilee would stand the test of time, unlike many other parties which die, diminish or keep changing their colours like chameleons to remain afloat.

But barely three years since the formation of Jubilee, which we were promised would hold on for 100 years, the outfit appears all set to implode.

Two camps are engaged in a tug-of-war over who should succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta. The storm was sparked by former Jubilee vice-chairperson David Murathe early this year when he declared Dr Ruto unfit to be the party’s 2022 flagbearer. Claims of a plot to assassinate the DP and a leaked phone conversation allegedly between the party’s Secretary-General Raphael Tuju and a former MP have widened fissures in the party.

The March 9, 2018 handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga gave the country much-needed peace after the contested 2017 presidential election. Yet rather than give Jubilee the sure-footing it needed in directing the affairs of Government and State without too much distraction, it brought out the worst in the ruling party.

The rancour that the secret deal generated is evident in the DP’s cold attitude not just towards the handshake, but Raila as well. Both Ruto and Raila have not spared an opportunity to score points off each other.

Unfortunately, as Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria pointed out, the hostility is causing divisions in the country and it does not help Jubilee’s cause at all.

We would be less concerned had the wrangles currently rocking Jubilee been in another party. But make no mistake, Jubilee is not just any other party; it is the ruling party.

History has shown that such wrangling has a way of hurting service delivery. That was evident during the Mwai Kibaki-Raila Odinga coalition government in the aftermath of the 2007–2008 post-election crisis.

Even in the current squabbling pitting pro-Uhuru and Ruto camps, mistrust fuelled by the assassination claims and what appears to be early campaigns for the 2022 presidential succession have spilled over to Government. The Cabinet appears to be pulling in different directions. Needless to say, this has the potential to affect service delivery.

That’s why it is important for Jubilee to pull itself together, put its house in order and give the country direction.

Besides guarding against disruption of service delivery, the move will help forestall splinter groups ahead of the 2022 elections. Such groupings can only entrench tribalism.

Already, there are reports that opposing Jubilee camps have either formed new political parties or are dusting off old ones ready to jump ship if they fail to have their way in the ruling party. But despite the obvious storm, Jubilee bigwigs have disavowed claims of a split.

If Jubilee caves in, its collapse will only serve to confirm the obvious; that like many other political parties that have fallen along the way, it was built on a shaky foundation.

Parties in mature democracies never close shop due to individual interests and ambitions. They hold elections to determine who should vie for what position. They also have internal mechanisms of resolving disputes.

That’s how the Democratic Party in the US, which was founded in 1828 and its counterpart, the Republican Party (1854), have managed to survive this long.

There is every reason for Jubilee to go down that road. It’s time the party called a meeting to thrash out the sticky issues.