HURTING:Joseph Mathai
FIVE officials of President Uhuru Kenyatta's TNA Party are planning to resign because of interference from State House in their operations.
The National Alliance officials have chosen to remain anonymous but are criticising the political advisory wing of State House headed by the Chief Political Advisor to the Presidency, Nancy Gitau.
"All party officials signed their resignation letters as a precondition for joining party. Over five officials intend to resign and have issued notice to the party owners," a senior TNA source said.
The officials are reportedly frustrated by the lack of funds for party activities following a court order barring the distribution of the Political Party Funds.
"The party is broke as we stand and it is becoming impossible to do anything. We have not even met as officials of the party since the PG meeting in September," the official said.
Party staff have been also going without salaries after MPs allied to TNA failed to honour their pledges of financial contributions. Yesterday, TNA executive director Joseph Maathai downplayed the problems.
"We are just getting in from the financial woods and they know this. This is not only a problem in TNA. All other parties are in agreement that the withholding of the Political Parties Fund is hurting everyone," Maathai told the Star on phone.
He added that he, Chairman Johnson Sakaja, and Secretary General Onyango Oloo had approached MPs on their contributions and money had started trickling in.
Maathai confirmed that TNA had not been holding its statutory meetings but said officials should not blame it on State House."If they are concerned that meetings have not been convened, they should address this issue to the Chairman and the Secretary General. Otherwise, they are pointing fingers at the wrong office," Maathai said.
Since the March 4 election, the party has been hit by various challenges including the attempt to remove Sakaja from his chairmanship.
Three internal audits have been conducted on TNA's campaign finances that ran into hundreds of millions.The audits have not been made public and reportedly incriminate some top officials.
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