PNU is going through turbulent times, but we are not alone: Kiraitu

By Lucas Barasa
Posted Saturday, September 25 2010 at 22:00
In Summary

PNU secretary-general Kiraitu Murungi explains how the party is tackling its problems and the way forward during an interview with Lucas Barasa

The Party of National Unity has come under immense criticism over its poor performance in the recent by-elections. As PNU secretary-general, what is your take?

I would like to correct reports that I and chairman George Saitoti were not interested in the elections and that was why we did not feature in the campaigns as claimed by Moses Kuria and vice-chairman George Nyamweya.

First I would like to put the record straight that the two do not call the party meetings. Kuria is not a spokesman of PNU and does not hold any position. He has no authority to speak on behalf of PNU.

As for Nyamweya, he is a member of the management committee which meets regularly. Nyamweya is one of the four vice-chairmen but has chosen not to attend meetings and thus has no idea what is going on in the party. As vice-chairman of the party in charge of elections, he did not also attend the campaigns. He should remove the log in his eye before speaking.

It is only Saitoti and myself who are mandated to call meetings. However, they are free to hold meetings in lobbies, bars or gyms.

Do you think PNU performed poorly in the by-elections?

The by-elections, in my view, were not about parties. No party won or lost. The elections were won or lost by individual candidates. Money played a big role, and Narc Kenya should not claim to have triumphed. (William) Kabogo would still have won if he vied on any other party (ticket). Any party celebrating on the basis of the by-election outcome has missed the point.

Why didn’t you and Prof Saitoti participate in the campaigns?

George Saitoti and I were out of the country in the last days of the campaigns. Before we left, we supported the candidates, and they know it. Those complaining are outsiders. We even backed Starehe candidate Maina Kamanda and Dick Wathika (Makadara).

Is your party’s move to give direct nomination to the candidates to blame for their performance?

No. That is not true. We issued direct tickets as is allowed in our election rules. None of the other parties, including ODM and Narc Kenya, conducted primaries. Every party used direct nomination.

In PNU, we have a policy that, if a member loses his seat, he or she should be given direct nomination. That is what we did to Ali Mwakwere (Matuga MP), Dick Wathika, George Thuo and Maina Kamanda. We also give preference to candidates who lose elections unfairly.

According to you, why did George Thuo lose the Juja seat?

George Thuo lost because of internal wrangles and infighting within PNU, political rivalry in leadership in PNU and Central Province politics. From where I sit, we have our own problems in PNU but we are not alone.

All political parties in Kenya are going through turbulent times. We in PNU are not benefiting from the Political Parties Fund. The whole of last year we operated without money from the Registrar of Political Parties while all other parties got their money.

After Narc Kenya received its share, it went to court and blocked PNU from receiving its money, saying it should have been allocated much more. The case is still pending in court. This has seriously affected our capacity to call meetings and mobilise our branches at the grassroots level. This has contributed largely to apparent lack of activities on the PNU side.

Secondly, leadership problems in the coalition have adversely affected us. This has slowed down the party. This is part of what you saw in Juja (PNU MPs rallying behind non-members). The problem is not only in PNU.

Even ODM has challenges at the leadership level. The party leader (Raila Odinga) and one of his deputies, William Ruto, are not together. Kanu has more serious problems. In my own view, parties have been trapped by their leaders. Various caucuses have formed around leaders.

A lot of time is also being used in scheming about and strategising on the presidential candidate for 2012 rather than focusing on development of political parties as vehicles for political education and development of a democratic country.

Until this political culture changes and presidential candidates become children of political parties rather than parties becoming children of presidential candidates, politics in this country will continue to be very fluid and unpredictable.

Following the new Constitution, we have to take party politics seriously. PNU has a lot of grassroots support. It is like the original Ford in 1992 that had support all over the country, but divided leadership at the top made it unable to deliver. Unless we unite and stop being political stars with endless caucuses, we are going to caucus ourselves or our politics to oblivion.

What is the way forward for PNU?

We are battling with the Registrar of Political Parties to release our funds. Once we get the cash, we will review our branch network and address leadership problems. We want to prepare to be a formidable force in 2012. We take the Juja and other by-elections as lessons along the way. We don’t see it as the end of the journey for us.

Last year, you launched the Progressive Democratic Movement which immediately promised to unite PNU affiliates and field a single candidate in 2012. How has the outfit progressed?

PDM was started with the aim of uniting political leadership within PNU because nobody wanted to abandon his or her party but wanted a place where they could all be comfortable. But, after we launched PDM, it became obvious that some leaders within PNU were not interested in going with it. So, as a political vehicle, we have abandoned it because the original idea of having all passengers on board did not work.