Registrar summons UDF, Jubilee coalition leaders over pact deal

By Moses Njagih

The estranged coalition partners of TNA/URP and UDF will meet the Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u on Monday.

Opinion is divided over the implications of a possible ruling that the Jubilee coalition was in breach of agreement by kicking out Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi’s team from its pact.

Ms Ndung’u has summoned leaders of the Jubilee coalition, bringing together Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s TNA and Eldoret North MP William Ruto’s URP, and Mr Mudavadi’s UDF over alleged breach of coalition agreement. UDF filed the complaint.

UDF Chairman Hassan Osman on Saturday confirmed that they had received the Registrar’s summons.

Mudavadi’s outfit has complained to the Registrar that all the dispute resolution procedures were not followed by TNA and URP, that further went ahead and nominated Uhuru as Jubilee Coalition’s presidential candidate with Ruto as his running mate.

“We have been called by the Registrar to meet with her and leaders from the other parties on Monday at 2pm. I would not want to pre-empt any details, but we will go and hear what she has to tell us,” said Mr Osman during a UDF press conference on Saturday.

While a section of UDF argues that the Registrar should declare Jubilee coalition a nullity, party secretary general Dan Ameyo says that this is not the motive.

“We have never been an antagonistic party and we are not fighting to remain in that coalition. We just want a ruling from the Registrar to know if we have moved from an era where legal agreements were flouted at will or we are still in the era of impunity,” said Ameyo.

Former Siakago MP Justin Muturi, who is allied to TNA dismissed the complaint lodged by Mudavadi and said:

Coalition quit

“Mudavadi and his team may have petitioned the Registrar in the hope that she would find Jubilee coalition a nullity, but that is not the case. The addendum that Mudavadi signed with TNA/URP had a clause that agrees to a mutual consent disengagement and that is what UDF presidential aspirant did.”

The former legislator said Mudavadi publicly stated he took a walk from the Jubilee team, a move that translated to his consent to quit the coalition.

On claims by Mudavadi that Uhuru reneged on an agreement to drop his presidential bid in his favour, Muturi said this cannot hold to the standards of the agreement stipulated in Chapter 10 of the Political Parties Act.

Osman revealed that UDF had lodged the complaint with the Registrar to avoid any legal hurdle that the party may face in its independent preparation for the March 4 General Election, given that they had deposited a coalition pact with  Jubilee leaders at the Registrar’s office.

“We thought the fact that we are still part of the agreement with Jubilee according to the pact deposited with the Registrar, it was important to notify her, so that we do not meet legal challenges,” Osman said.

He says that according to the coalition agreement, there are three ways through which a member can cease being in an alliance, but TNA and URP failed to consider them.

“The agreement sets a five-member committee to resolve any dispute that may arise. The second option grants the aggrieved party 90 days to lodge its intention of breaking away, while the third option allows the parties to mutually agree to terminate the agreement,” said Osman.