Jubilee Decision Time

Deputy Prime Ministers Uhuru Kenyatta and Musalia Mudavadi

BY WANJOHI GITHAE AND BEN SHIZUKANE
MONDAY, 17 DECEMBER, 2012

Leaders agree each party in coalition to take 1,500 delegates to Kasarani to form 4,500 strong voter register to nominate presidential flag bearer Jubilee coalition leaders Uhuru, Mudavadi and Ruto commit to remain together whatever the outcome of the nomination for presidential candidate tomorrow. Whoever loses between the two to settle for position of Leaders of Majority Party in Parliament. Each delegate to cast one vote in exercise where local and foreign observers are invited to verify that democracy is exercised

Tomorrow is decision time at the Jubilee Alliance as its 4,500 delegates from across the country converge at Moi International Sports Complex, Kasarani to nominate the presidential flag bearer. By about 1pm tomorrow, it will be known which of the two deputy prime ministers, Musalia Mudavadi and Uhuru Kenyatta will lead the party in the anticipated titanic battle with the Cord Alliance that is to be led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The decision that Jubilee will finally nominate the candidate by the delegates’ system emerged yesterday after the coalition leaders, Mudavadi, Uhuru and Eldoret North MP William Ruto met for four hours and agreed on a few points to ensure the alliance remains united after the exercise.Jubilee sources said the three agreed that none would step down for the other before the nomination by delegates. They also assured each other that none would defect, whatever the outcome. Today they are expected to move to Kitui for a rally hosted by Narc leader Charity Ngilu. Speculation has been rife over how Jubilee would settle the contest between Mudavadi and Uhuru, but representatives of the three parties in the alliance, The National Alliance (TNA), United Republican Party (URP) and United Democratic Forum (UDF) finally decided to hold nominations tomorrow, in a sepa- rate meeting.

Representatives The nomination could have been held today, but it was put off by one day to allow UDF to conclude logistics of bringing its 1,500 delegates to the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani. Each party will have a similar number of delegates to make 4,500. However, UDF sources said a proposal will be considered on the floor to allow four other affiliate parties, Narc, Kanu, Conservative and Republican Party to field a number of delegates each to vote. UDF had earlier insisted on a boardroom consensus, but URP and TNA rejected the idea since they had already promised the public a democratic process to nominate their flag bearer.Ruto is already the running mate designate while Mudavadi or Uhuru will bear the main torch, with the loser expected to settle for Majority Leader position.

“TNA and URP convinced their counterparts UDF that the coalition stood to receive bad publicity and vicious attacks if they went the consensus route,” said a source privy to the happenings.The nominations had initially been set for today, but sources within the coalition said UDF sought more time to come up with more delegates as it had only initially budgeted for 1,000.The technical committee spentthe better part of yesterday working out the details of the nominations, in a parallel meeting with that of the leaders.TNA was represented by Johnson Sakaja, Onyango Oloo and Jasper Mbiuki, URP by Adan Duale, Kipchumba Murkomen and Nixon Korir while UDF had Dan Ameyo and Hassan Osman.The technical team kept updating the coalition leaders on the progress of their negotiations.It was agreed there will be more than 20 streams of voting booths to expedite the process. Delegates are expected to be in Nairobi by today evening.

The presidential contenders had earlier yesterday cancelled a rally that had been organised to take place in Muranga to concentrate on nomination preparations.The decision to push forward the nomination came only a day afterUhuru, Mudavadi and Ruto held a meeting where they agreed on the delegates system. Speaking at Jevanjee Gardens on Saturday while receiving Cooperatives Development minister Joe Nyagah, who defected from the Orange Democratic Movement, Ruto said the exercise would be conducted smoothly.

Nomination process

Ruto repeated the same at a joint rally in Malava, Kakamega North district, where he said Jubilee supporters should not be worried as Uhuru and Mudavadi had already agreed on how the nomination process shall be carried out.“We were in a meeting as Jubilee leaders before this rally and I think there is no cause for alarm as all the thorny issues regarding the nomination of our presidential candidate have been resolved said,” Ruto.He added: “We will bring him to Kenyans and thereafter we hit the road to campaign for him to ensure he clinches the presidency.”This was after fifteen legislators who attended the rally asked Mudavadi and Uhuru to amicably negotiate between themselves over who to carry the presidential mantle.

Cabinet minister Soita Shitanda (Housing) in whose Malava constit- uency the rally was held and Noami Shaban (Gender) were also present.But Shitanda and Shaban said “small differences over who should be presidential candidate were normal and would be resolved.Voting preparationsSakaja, Osman and URP chairman Francis ole Kaparo are expected to tour Kasarani today to check the progress of the voting preparations.The coalition has invited observers from across the continent, among them leading political parties like South Africa’s African National Congress. African diplomats have also been invited.

Sources said the coalition has put in place contingency measures for members of public who wish to access Kasarani.The road to tomorrow’s nomination begun on December 4 when Uhuru, Mudavadi and URP’s William Ruto met and agreed to form a coalition. The three resolved the loser will be the Leader of Majority Party in Parliament.The loser would also be given leeway to declare who he would want to be Speakers of both the National Assembly and the Senate. In addition, the Majority Leader will get two cabinet seats from the President’s party. The three candidates had agreed to share 33 per cent of all cabinet appointments.