Jubilee Union is good for the President, but what about democracy?

On Tuesday President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto held a meeting with leaders of parties that had agreed to fold to formally form Jubilee Party and touted to be the last in the tedious process to make 2017 elections easier for the Jubilee administration.

That is easier said on paper than done, considering that party posts in the new outfit is yet to jostled for by the leaders disembarking from their original parties, personal interests among them notwithstanding.

The development is actually good for President Uhuru to seek reelection and to be frank if all things go as planned, Jubilee coalition may win the next general election by a land slide.

Before you throw barbs at me consider the fact that the opposition forces are far from being neither united nor organized enough to take on Jubilee bandwagon in the next general election.

The CORD coalition with all the due respect is a broken house with internal wrangles being the order of the day.

While AMANI outfit could be seen as a voice of reason in times of political uncertainties, it seemingly lacks the muscle to marshal enough support countrywide to singly be a party of choice for the greater population of the electorate.

It has also somehow failed to use diplomacy associated with it to garner coalition with more powerful outfits which only goes along to prove indecision in its ranks.

Having said that, the dissolution of more than seven parties to form Jubilee Party has already been criticized by both Cord leader Raila Odinga and AMANI leader Musalia Mudavadi;  for all the good reason, that it is not good for democracy but politics is all about survival and that what makes the formation of Jubilee Party a win situation for President Uhuru who is strongly assured of another five-year-term after the next general election because looking around there is no organized opposition that can threaten his reelection.

Mr. Odinga said what Jubilee leadership was doing was taking the country back to the KANU days.  Which was a veiled terminology that the country was being led to a single party state situation which in general, means gains of multi-parties that guarantees freedom and access to many fundamental rights could be withered by an over powerful coalition, that may stifle democratic space even in parliament; which could suddenly be dominated by people with no dissenting views but acting on a common ground of united policy through tyranny of numbers.

Mr. Mudavadi was also not happy about the dissolution of parties to form one outfit and fell short of condemning the move saying that; “Kenya has been on experimentation mode, stuck on the political highway between the promise of democracy and threatening return to the devious past. The country is being held hostage by political gangsters”.

However, as I said earlier politics is about survival and Mr. Mudavadi whom I believe is a trustworthy leader, has not provided much of a choice that he can do better to first secure the top seat in the country, and secondly how he would secure the democratic space for all Kenyans if he was to be elected president.

Without answering the above pertinent issues it is worth noting that Jubilee is currently the most organized and the most active political outfit, that the next general election is all but assured for the president and his deputy for the next five years.