Jubilee party is structurally dead, William Ruto ally now declares

Garissa MP Aden Duale. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Former National Assembly majority leader Aden Duale has declared Jubilee Party as structurally dead, and that UDA will be the vehicle of choice in the coming General Election.

Duale, however, said the recently concluded Kiambaa by-election between United Democratic Alliance's John Njuguna Wanjiku and Jubilee Party's Kariri Njama was friendly fire because UDA was a Jubilee affiliate party.

The United Democratic Alliance candidate won by a margin of 510 votes after he garnered 21,773 votes in a tightly contested poll.

Duale said those describing the poll as a contest between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto were getting it all wrong.

“We have a plan to form a government next year and our vehicle will be UDA. In all those by-elections, the competition was between the mother party Jubilee and its affiliate,” he said.

He challenged other parties, including Wiper, ODM and ANC to field candidates in perceived Jubilee strongholds.

“Jubilee is our party and we have realised that it has serious structural weaknesses, that it is sick, some of the key organs of the party have failed,” he added.

The outspoken lawmaker said Jubilee Party with "its failures" they can no longer be of use in the long journey to 2022 General Election.

The former leader of the majority said despite defects in the Jubilee Party, it still commanded the highest number of members both in the Senate and the National Assembly.

Duale said United Democratic Alliance, a party formerly known as Party of Democracy and Reforms (PDR), had several Members of Parliament as well as Ward representatives.