Why parties must respect and follow organisational rules and procedures

By Anyang’ Nyong’o

Try as we could this last week to explain to Kenyans what the process of submitting parties’ membership lists to the Registrar of Political Parties is all about, some elements in the media insisted the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party should not have submitted its papers under its old constitution if we really wanted to accommodate the wishes of Musalia Mudavadi.

There is no such thing as the old constitution of the ODM. Like all other political parties already registered under the old Constitution, ODM has a current constitution recognised by the Registrar of Political Parties. This constitution has been with the Registrar of Political Parties since 2008 and it is under it that the party currently operates, including our MPs.

The Political Parties Act, however, requires that all existing political parties now begin the process of registration anew in line with the current Constitution and the Political Parties Act. This process begins with submitting to the Registrar a list of members before April 30. This list must meet the following requirements.

First, a party must have 1,000 members in at least 24 counties. These members must be fairly distributed in terms of gender, age, ethnic groups and so on. The ODM presented membership in 35 counties, the highest so far presented. We shall present the other 12 before the deadline expires.

It took us long to verify our membership because some other political parties simply went to the register of voters and copied membership from it. Some of these people they took were our members. We therefore had to do a lot of verification before we sent our list to the registrar.

Second, the leadership of the party in all its organs must be representative of gender, age, minorities, and the disadvantaged. Our current constitution is fairly responsive to these requirements.

The Political Parties Act, however, has given all parties more time to align their constitutions and nomination and election rules to both the Act and the Constitution before the General Election. This alignment was not to be completed before the presentation of membership lists; the two processes are distinct.

Hence those accusing ODM of having betrayed or ‘foxed’ Mudavadi by filing our membership list under the so-called ‘old’ party constitution are simply being mischievous and malevolent towards the party and its leadership, including Mudavadi.

We have already set in motion the process of aligning our constitution, election and nomination rules as required. A legal committee has been working on this and submitting drafts for discussion by the governing organs of the party, as our constitution requires.

When Mudavadi proposed that Article 6.2.1 of our constitution be changed, it was discussed at the last Executive Committee meeting and the change was unanimously approved. Mudavadi was present at this meeting. I have already notified the Registrar of Political Parties, as required by the Act, of the process already under way to change this article.

Anybody intending to run for president on the ODM ticket therefore has plenty of time to do so.

Changing this particular Article means that anybody in ODM, including Mudavadi, is free to enter the race for nomination to be the ODM presidential candidate. The previous provision said that the Party Leader automatically becomes the candidate. The NEC has now proposed that this provision be changed to allow any qualified party member to enter the race.

Therefore, the wishes of Mudavadi – and any other member of the same opinion – have been met. Anybody arguing now that the ODM is reluctant to do what it has already done is obviously being capricious. But let it be noted that this process of changing that Article, and any other part of our constitution, is going on until the National Delegates Congress meets.

The meetings of the ODM are governed by our constitution, and the provisions are clear regarding when and how Special and Ordinary NDCs are called. It is very disheartening to hear some members of the party, for purely opportunistic reasons, demanding an NDC can meet within a week and change just one part of the constitution even before the National Governing Council approves the proposal.

In one of my articles two weeks ago, I pleaded for the importance of building a viable democratic political culture if we are going to solidify democracy and progressive reforms in Kenya.

I am aware that, after over 40 years if authoritarian rule, the art of running organisations along democratic lines has been long lost to our people. Authoritarian attitudes and expectations exist not just among the rulers but among the ruled as well. Political parties are not exempted.

But we must begin changing this. And the first point of departure is to respect and follow organisational rules and procedures. If, for example, the ODM has been operating under certain rules, and these rules also state the procedure of changing them, by all means do not try to intimidate the ODM not to follow its rules simply because you want something to be done unprocedurally. This simply undermines the building of a democratic political culture.

Further, we need to learn to respect the results of thorough and fair investigation, especially for things broadcast in the electronic media or published in the print media, before we put them in the public domain.

Or if we do by saying they are "claims", then we should verify them post facto by thorough and fair investigation. But when we persistently broadcast information not verifiable by facts we equally undermine the building of a democratic political culture.

The writer is Minister for Medical Services