DEPUTY Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta is poised to join a new political party that has been identified by his close ally former Siakago MP Justin Muturi, the Star has established. The party is the National Alliance Party of Kenya which is led by veteran politician and businessman Nginyo Kariuki, according to inside sources.
Preparations for activating the new party were behind the postponement of the KANU National Delegates Conference which was slated for tomorrow. No new date has been set for the NDC. KANU now faces being deregistered at the end of April until it quickly complies with the Political Parties Act. “We are growing tired of this party. It reaches a point when you want to give all the confusion around it a break and start off afresh,” a KANU insider and Uhuru supporter told the Star.
Uhuru, the KANU chairman, gave an undertaking at the GEMA meeting in Limuru last Friday that he would announce his preferred party for the next election within a month. “There is nothing like that but if he does, we will welcome him. We actually do not have a presidential candidate. We would not mind to have him as our candidate,” Kariuki told the Star.
Muturi is the current chair of Centre for Multi-Party Democracy. As KANU's organising secretary, he stood by Uhuru in the bitter struggle for control of the party with Vice Chairman Gideon Moi and Secretary General Nick Salat. Another close ally of Uhuru confirmed that the Deputy Prime Minister was set to join a new party “yet to be formed.” The source said Uhuru's party of choice is “none of those being bandied around.”
Uhuru would not join assistant minister Mwangi Kiunjuri's Grand National Union or the Abdikadir Mohamed-led United Democratic Forum (UDF) even though they had been formed for him, said the source. Kiunjuri said that Uhuru is still welcome to join GNU as its presidential candidate. “It is not a must that he joins. We are ready to support his presidential bid in whichever party he runs with. But if he wishes to join us, he is most welcome. GNU is obviously the party to watch in both Central and the entire country,” Kiunjuri said.
NAPK was formed in July 2000 as an umbrella party for 14 other political parties including President Kibaki's Democratic Party. All the 14 wanted to defeat Kanu in the 2002 general election. Other members of NAPK at the time were the late Vice President Wamalwa Kijana (Ford Kenya) and current Water minister Charity Ngilu (National Party of Kenya). A few months before the 2002 elections, NAPK formed a coalition with Raila Odinga's Liberal Democratic Party to create the eventually victorious National Rainbow Coalition.
Raila had just walked out of KANU together with Kalonzo Musyoka and a few others. NARC with Mwai Kibaki as its presidential candidate defeated KANU and its candidate Uhuru. The deadline for compliance with the requirements of the new Political Parties Act is April 30. After that date parties which have no complied will automatically be deregistered. When Uhuru said in Limuru that he needed one month to announce his party for 2013, he was looking for time for NAPK to fulfill the requirements.
Of associated with Uhuru, only GNU and UDF have complied and are about to receive their full certificate of registration. Neither NAPK nor KANU has yet complied. According to the Act, the parties must have at least 1000 members in at least half the counties (24); physical offices in at least 24 counties; gender, minority and regional balance representation in their national leadership; and compliance of their officials with Chapter Six of the constitution.
Uhuru had at one point considered Kanu as his election vehicle because of its infrastructure across the country. With his blessing, the party re-branded last December. However he was advised that it was difficult to sell KANU, especially in his home area of Central. Uhuru's spokesman Munyori Buku yesterday said Kenyans should wait for the DPM to announce his choice.
He said Uhuru's announcement in Limuru last Friday did not mean he had quit KANU. “Saying 'I will announce which party in a month's time' does not exclude Kanu. It's also a party!” Buku told the Star. Yesterday, Muturi blamed Gideon Moi's faction for creating obstacles to Kanu's compliance with the Political Parties Act. Muturi, along with Vice chair Amina Abdallah and Deputy Secretary Moitalel Ole Kenta, said Moi's group had refused to withdraw court cases barring fresh recruitment.
“Despite several assurances by the SG (Salat) that they will withdraw cases filed against the Chairman and the party in various courts and as agreed during several NEC meetings held in January and February, the SG has failed, refused and neglected to do so," they said. "The cases actually portend to have a restraining effect on the recruitment and registration of new members and the overall process towards compliance,” a statement signed by the three said.
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