Jubilee party wars

Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu has thrown the saga surrounding change of Jubilee officials into a fresh spin that may leave the matter in limbo.

By telling the ruling party to sort out the mess, the Registrar essentially skirted around the issue while giving a reprieve to both sides, almost in equal measure.

This also means the bickering is likely to continue as it’s unclear which party organs will resolve the matter.

In a letter to party Secretary General Raphael Tuju, the Registrar threw the ball back to the divided Jubilee house, asking it to settle the differences between its leadership and apprise her.

She said when she analysed the objections to the proposed changes, she realised they all related to internal processes of the party. In this instance, she alluded that the objections were procedural rather than substantial.

“They all relate to the procedures and processes within your party. Consequently, these written objections are hereby forwarded to Jubilee Party to be addressed in accordance with party constitution and party structures,” she said in the letter.

The objections are contained in a flood of 350 written memos coordinated by the wing allied to Deputy President William Ruto.

Internal mechanisms

When asked whether the changes will take effect or not, Nderitu cryptically responded: “Read the last two lines of the letter.”

The last two lines say: “Further, you are notified to apprise this office on the deliberations and resolutions on the matter. This office expects that Jubilee Party will endeavor to comply with Political Parties Act 2011 in all aspects.”

In the letter, Nderitu reminded the party that although they can take the matter to the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal, they must first exhaust their internal dispute resolution mechanisms. The subtle warning being that divided as they are, they must square it out.

“Kindly note that Section 40 of the Political Parties Act 2011 provides that if there is a dispute between the members of a political party or between a member of a political party and the political party, the dispute shall be referred to the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal for hearing and determination. Nevertheless, the party is expected to have exhausted its internal dispute resolution mechanism in line with Section 40(2) of the Act,” states Nderitu’s letter to Tuju.

In a gazette notice, Ms Nderitu had named former Kitutu Masaba MP Walter Nyambati, Marete Marangu, James Waweru, Lucy Macharia and Jane Nampaso as the new NMC that will take charge of the day-to-day management of the ruling party.

The five were replacing Pamela Mutua, Veronica Maina and Fatuma Shukri who resigned after securing jobs in government. The changes triggered the wrath of the Deputy President who is also the deputy party leader, who in a tweet said the move had been rejected by the majority of the top party members.

A bitter Ruto said in tweets that “fraudsters” and “crooks” had plotted to take control of the party without his blessings.

In his earlier tweet, Ruto had exonerated Uhuru from the changes and instead decided to pick on the officials whom he called political rejects and conmen.

“70 per cent -146 elected Jubilee MPs-Senate& National Assembly have rejected the fraudulent & illegal attempted changes by heartless gangsters taking advantage of the Covid19 when Kenyans are anxious about their health &survival. They aren’t President Uhuru’s men; They are CROOKS,” Ruto tweeted.

As the Jubilee Party implosion rages, Ruto allies say they are going to fight for the soul of the political outfit, declaring they will not be shoved out.

The letter is also copied to Ruto, National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and his Senate counterpart Kipchumba Murkomen.

Yesterday, Jubilee Deputy Secretary General Caleb Kositany, also the Soy MP, hailed the move by the Registrar, saying they now expect the President and his Deputy, who by the Party’s Constitution are allowed to convene a National Executive Committee, to act so that the dispute can be resolved.

“We are happy that the register has noted our concern, which was on the process that was employed to make the changes. It has been our contention that the purported meeting of February 10, never took place and that what was forwarded to the committee were cooked minutes,” claimed Kositany.

Kositany said they will explore all avenues to thwart the illegality that was being done in the party.

“We will go to the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal and lodge our complaints. We cannot sit and rubber stamp fraud, we will fight to the end to right the wrong,” said Kositany after receiving the verdict from the RPP.

Kositany said they had no option other than the Jubilee Party and warned that their fight will be spirited and robust. “We will have a conversation together with over 170 MPs who had written the protest letters and chart away forward on this matter, we are not yet done,” said Soi MP.

He said they were instituting a probe on where the members of the National Management Committee who are alleged to have met were on the said date to prove that there was no such meeting.

“Once we have proved this, we will take legal actions against Tuju and the Party Chairman for forwarding fraudulent documents,” he said.

Deep frustrations

Ruto’s reference of those scheming to control the party as ‘heartless gangsters’ captured his deep frustration and anguish that the political outfit that he helped form and carried his aspiration was being taken away from him.

With President Kenyatta, Ruto lobbied for the collapsing of 13 parties into one big outfit they had billed to last for hundred years and unite Kenyans.

The DP collapsed his United Republican Party (URP) which had 76 MPs to join up with the others in September 2016 despite murmurs from his support base.

Political pundits believe that Ruto’s die at Jubilee has been cast and it is time he plans his political life beyond the party if he still wants to give a stab at the presidency. 

“Ruto would have known by now that he cannot take over the party from the owners, can only be of nuisance value as he plans elsewhere,” said Herman Manyora, a political analyst and University of Nairobi (UoN) lecturer.

He said the owners of the ruling party were worried that Ruto would continue making political capital if he stays put and were now nagging him to leave.