Acid test for Ruto in UDA outfit pr*maries
Deputy President (DP) William Ruto has promised to take personal responsibility for the planned United Democratic Alliance (UDA) nominations set for April 14, putting his presidential ambitions on the line in case the exercise fails to deliver credible results.
Although the DP exuded confidence that the party will conduct foolproof primaries, the possibility of external interference could jeopardise the party’s ambitious plans to ensure free and fair polls.
UDA maintains it has attracted more than 6,000 aspirants, a huge number for a party that is barely a year old. It is aiming to ensure most of them go through the same nomination procedure, which is expected to attract thousands of voters, on a single day.
Yesterday, the party said it was aware of plans by some state agencies and their competitors to infiltrate the primaries and cause mayhem but played them down, revealing they had put in place mechanisms to ensure their detractors do not succeed.
Despite the fears, the DP, who termed the coming exercise as “crucial and monumental”, said he would be in the forefront to ensure the nominations, which are normally chaotic whichever party is involved, are above board and produce deserving candidates to fly the outfit’s flag in the August 9 General Election.
“We are fully aware of the importance of this exercise and as I told our members, I will personally supervise them to ensure that our exercise is above board and every member gets an opportunity to be voted for and to win or not win fairly,” he said during a function at his Karen residence.
Troublesome nominations
He added: “I have personally been supervising that exercise for the last two days and we have printed close to 30 million ballots already and we are concluding 15 million ballots that are still outstanding in the next three days; so that we can be ready by this weekend to run the nominations across the country.”
Yesterday, UDA National Elections Board chairman Anthony Mwaura said they would be on the lookout for those who might be out to create chaos on the appointed date.
“We are aware there are those planning some of the things to interfere with our nominations. These are people who do not have anything to offer Kenyans so they are trying to mess with our nominations,” Mwaura said.
He, however, added that they had made the party members and aspirants aware of the planned infiltration.
“Our members will deter any attempts to interfere with the nominations,” he said.
The party polls are set to present a litmus test to the young outfit that will be seeking to avoid the troubles that have always been associated with primaries.
The other parties are trying as much to avoid the troublesome nominations with Orange Democratic Movement and Jubilee exploring friendlier ways to pick candidates.
Mwaura said they were ready to conduct the primaries, adding that they will recruit competent polling agents to oversee the exercise.
“The board will recruit a total of 47 returning officers, 128 presiding officers and 100,000 polling clerks to conduct this exercise. Hustlers are encouraged to visit the party portal UDA.ke to apply,” he said during a press conference at Hustlers’ Centre in Nairobi.
Mwaura said the Ministry of Education had allowed them to use primary schools as polling centres.
For the governor’s seat, the outfit will conduct nominations in 12 counties while for the Senate it will be in 19 counties. For the Woman Representative position, it will be in 27 counties, for MP, 128 constituencies and 892 wards for the Member of County Assembly (MCA) contest.
Stepped down
Ruto spoke as he announced that Amani National Congress governor candidate for Kisii Chweya Matoke had stepped down for UDA’s Ezekiel Machogu in what the DP described as a result of extensive consultations between Kenya Kwanza Alliance teams in the county.
The move, according to the DP, had resulted in the consolidation and realignment of Kenya Kwanza Alliance candidates so that “we can face our competitors in a much more efficient and effective way”.
“I want to congratulate our teams in Kisii County, who have tirelessly worked to ensure that we have a seamless working relationship between the different parties in our team,” he said.
“I want to specifically thank the party leader of Amani National Congress (ANC)Musalia Mudavadi for providing leadership in this consensus process that today brings us to this press briefing,” he added.
Matoke stepped down for Machogu, who is among the six candidates seeking to succeed Governor James Ongwae.
“I take this opportunity to thank Charles Matoke for his gracious gesture and for agreeing to build the Kisii team by ceding ground, this time around so that he can work on consolidating his base and building better networks for him to pursue his political career soon,” Ruto said.
Ongoing talks
Ruto also announced that Joel Nyambane had stepped down for Kisii Deputy Governor Joash Maangi who will now vie for the county’s senate seat.
According to ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, the move would help the Kenya Kwanza Alliance secure assured wins in the coming polls.
Last week, the UDA National Elections Board announced that it would hold its nomination on the same day, across the country.
Ruto has encouraged political arrangements where aspirants agree on a lineup and avoid contested primaries that risk causing disaffection and possible fallouts.
This has been employed in Nyeri, Narok, Kakamega, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Trans Nzoia, Kilifi, Turkana, Tana River, Kwale and Bungoma counties where the governorship and senate seats were settled through consensus.
There are similar and ongoing talks for consensus and political deals in Nairobi and Embu counties where the DP’s allies have locked horns for the coveted county seats.
