Scramble for positions in Jubilee Party

Officials of Jubilee coalition affiliate parties are are jockeying and lobbying for top interim positions in the yet-to-be-launched Jubilee Party.

Interim officials will be appointed, not elected, to prevent destructive infighting and pre-election bloodletting. Permanent officials will be elected after 2017.

Still, as many as 28 interim posts will be powerful.

This is happening as the JP Steering Committee is to give the Jubilee merger report to President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto this week or next.

The new Jubilee Party — the fusion of affiliate parties — is to be launched a month after receipt of the report.

The issue of dissolving and merging into JP has caused anxiety because some parties fear they will lose their identity, voter appeal and bargaining power. Still, it's going to happen.

Tension is also building between elected leaders of affiliates over who should be appointed interim JP officials. Grassroots leaders have cited "a lot of mistrust and skepticism among aspirants".

Yesterday a group calling itself Mount Kenya Inter-Party Grassroots Leaders called on Uhuru and Ruto to ensure incumbent leaders are prohibited from serving as interim officials at national and county levels.

Representatives of more than 30 grassroots leaders said dissolution of affiliate parties "must adhere to due diligence and processes". At a press conference at White Rhino Hotel in Nyeri, they insisted on active involvement and approval of National Delegates Conferences of all affiliates.

They said in a statement: "We humbly appeal to the President and the Deputy President to ensure the Interim National Executive Committee and the interim County Executive Committees, in this formative stage before 2017 general elections, exclude fully the incumbent elected leaders and aspirants within the various party positions of their membership. There is a lot of mistrust and skepticism among the aspirants."

"Exclusion of incumbents and aspirants will ensure fairness, trust, transparency, inclusion, impartiality, justice and confidence prevail. This will assure all about fairness during the nomination process," they said.

They support the merger, however.

According to the JP constitution, as many as 28 crucial positions are available at national and county levels. The constitution says the new interim positions will be distributed among officials of affiliates in the merger during the transition phase.

"The merger party [JP] shall agree by consensus on the distribution and sharing of party positions among the officials of the dissolved parties, having regard to the respective strengths of the dissolved parties," the transition clause says.

The draft constitution provides for 14 national officials led by the Party Leader and Deputy Party Leader and another 14 county officials to be lead by the County Party Leader.

The seniormost positions are National Party Leader, National Chairman, Secretary General, National Treasurer and county chairpersons.

Insiders of the Jubilee coalition say officials of the seven political parties that have agreed to wind up and join the Jubilee Party have been reaching out to the who's who in the new outfit to solicit support and endorsement.

Parties that have agreed to merge include Uhuru's TNA, Ruto's URP, Senator Kiraitu Murungi's APK and United Democratic Movement. Others are New Ford Kenya, Jubilee Alliance Party, GNU and Ford People.

While the parties have agreed Uhuru will be the leader and Ruto the deputy, they reportedly have not yet decided on how former affiliates would share national and county positions.

Some parties have proposed that the strength of the parties in Parliament should be used to determine the relative number of positions each party will get.

Consultation are underway on how to accommodate affiliates' officials.

Most of functions and coordination leading to formation of JP have been taking place at the Nairobi offices of JP's precursor, the Jubilee Alliance Party. Party officials play a major role.

The chairman of JAP is Nelson Dzuya and vice chairman is former Gatanga MP David Murathe. Veronica Nduati is secretary general deputised by Caleb Kositany and Fatuma Mohamud.

The treasurer is Alfred Kipkorir, while Abdul Hajji, son of Yusuf Hajji, is organising secretary

TNA has nominated MP Johnson Sakaja as chairman, Onyango Oloo as secretary general and Joseph Mathai as executive director. The three top TNA officials have been active in merger negotiations.

URP was represented in the negotiations by executive director David Koech, secretary general Fred Muteti and chairman Barry Shill, the Fafi MP.

In the new JP party, both national and county officials will play critical roles and county bosses will decide on 2017 candidates. Jubilee has said, however, it will not hand out direct nominations to favourites, bypassing popular sentiment

The County Election Board will decide candidates for all gubernatorial, parliamentary and county assembly seats.

Under the County Election Board, the team comprised of seven to nine members will determine who gets tickets to run for 290 parliamentary seats, 47 Senate and gubernatorial seats, and ward seats.

JP county and ward chairmen will have authority to run the party and only receive policy directions from the national office.

Yesterday JP steering committee co-chairman Noah Wekesa told the Star on the phone election for permanent party officials will be held after 2017 polls.

He said the party will hand-pick the interim officials, adding that internal elections now would be "likely to cause confusion and unnecessary infighting, as the party is preparing to ensure it wins the election".

"There will be no elections [now] now for the JP party. We are going to appoint interim officials to run affairs until after 2017. Elections now could be very destructive to us, considering we plan to ensure Jubilee retains power," he said.

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