TNA supporters in Nakuru. Photo/Ben Ndonga
PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta's The National Alliance party is carrying out a membership recruitment of people aged under 18 years in preparation for the 2017 elections.
TNA Secretary General Onyango Oloo told the Star that this was so that they can broaden the President's support base in 2017. "People who are 15, 16 and 17 years now will be in the voting bracket in 2017. We therefore have them in a special register," Oloo said.
The recruitment is being done parallel with that of those who are 18 years and above and who will participate in the party's internal elections in the coming months. "As Cord affiliate parties are involved in rallies, we have decided to focus on ensuring that we register more members and increase our support base," Oloo said.
Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto have been focusing on the youth as one of the ways to increase their support ahead of 2017.
They have also held several events in secondary schools in areas where they are perceived to have a high voter base, especially in Central and Rift Valley.
The TNA Chair yesterday told the Star that the party would hold its elections as per its constitution and was currently involved in strengthening grassroots structures.
"We launched national recruitment in Nakuru, with the entire party leadership and all our MCAs. This includes the digital registration on *245#.
We have reinvigorated 32 county offices and have been meeting our different caucuses," Oloo said. He added that their target is to register seven million members, adding that there were 2.5 million TNA members, according to records with the registrar of political parties.
"This is in line with our goals of ensuring President Uhuru Kenyatta winning at 75 per cent in the first round of the 2017 elections," Oloo said. Earlier this year, there were calls for internal elections as a group of MPs and party officials sought to remove TNA Chair Johnson Sakaja and Oloo.
Yesterday, Oloo said that there were several caucuses that had been set up to bring together TNA governors, MPs and MCAs. "Last month, we also put in place the mechanism for a youth league and women's league. We shall then bring all these caucuses together and draw up the roadmap towards grassroots elections in all 47 counties, starting from the ward level, as provided for in the party constitution," Oloo said.
The nominated MP also said that they have set up a TNA Foundation and a TNA Business forum as a way of strengthening the party. "We have also strengthened ties with our international partners such as the Communist Party of China and will be establishing similar links in the USA during the President's visit, where we shall be seeking party-to-party links". Revisiting the the issue of allegedly missing party funds, Oloo said that this was just propaganda and the allegations were baseless.
"There was no such thing. As you remember, I summoned all the accounting officers, including the secretary general and former ED, and the oversight board went through all queries. The issues were subjected to auditors and given a clean bill of health," Oloo said.
After last year's elections, there were allegations that some Sh16.7 million withdrawn from an account at Equity Bank's Community branch in Nairobi could not be accounted for.
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