PDM COUNCIL

President Kibaki is at the centre of his succession plans, a Cabinet minister has claimed. Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi said the President is the leader of the newly formed Progressive Democratic Movement (PDM) that is to rally voters behind candidates from PNU affiliate parties in the next elections.

In an interview, Mr Murungi, who is the interim chairman of PDM, claimed that the President was consulted before the movement was crafted and sits in its top organ — the supreme council. “The President is, in reality, the leader of the movement,” he said.

Other members of the council are Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka of ODM Kenya, deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta (Kanu), Internal Security minister George Saitoti (PNU), and Kinangop MP David Ngugi, who represents an alliance of small parties in Parliament. The women’s league is represented by Public Health minister Beth Mugo.

Mr Murungi said he chairs the central committee of PDM whose secretary is Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo. The movement, he said, would be converted into a political party as the elections draw closer and would field candidates at all levels.

“At the end of the day, the movement will develop into a political party that will field a presidential, parliamentary, senate, county governor, and civic ward candidates on its ticket. Under the law, only political parties sponsor candidates. Movements can’t,” he said.

President Kibaki worked on a similar arrangement in the lead to the 2007 elections and brought together parties under the PNU umbrella on whose ticket he defended his seat. However, he is barred by the Constitution from running for office in the next elections.

Mr Murungi said his group had decided to create the movement two years before the next polls because of the lesson they learnt from the last minute launch of PNU in 2007. He said they decided to form another outfit and not promote PNU because they wanted a movement which would bring together like-minded parties without requiring them to wind up.

He said parties under PDM would not be allowed to sponsor their own candidates in 2012, the way PNU did in 2007.