Jubilee collapses over nomination row

The Jubilee coalition on Friday split barely two days after TNA leader Uhuru Kenyatta and UDF presidential aspirant Musalia Mudavadi disagreed publicly on the nomination criteria for its candidate in the March 4 election.

Effectively, Mr Kenyatta will on Sunday be endorsed to run for the presidency on the coalition’s ticket by TNA and URP delegates at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.

At a press conference at URP leader William Ruto’s campaign headquarters in Nairobi, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and the Eldoret North MP said Mr Mudavadi will pursue his presidential ambitions without the involvement of the Jubilee alliance.

“Given our inability to agree on the way forward, we have agreed as gentlemen not to distract our plans as we disengage and allow our brothers in UDF to continue on their own,” said Mr Kenyatta.

The divorce, termed mutual by Mr Ruto and Mr Kenyatta, but acrimonious according to details made available to Saturday Nation, followed days of political drama during which Mr Kenyatta admitted he had indeed signed a secret deal to support Mr Mudavadi.

Mr Kenyatta has since disowned the agreement, saying he was blackmailed by “dark forces.”

And Saturday Nation has learnt that Mr Mudavadi had threatened to challenge Mr Kenyatta’s turn-around in court.

It was then that the technical committee of the coalition met at a home of a Nairobi lawyer in Westlands with the three principals and examined the implications.

“It was found the document had no legal basis because it had not been ratified by delegates as provided for by the Political Parties Act,” said a highly placed source who requested not to be named.

It was also concluded that politically, Mr Mudavadi did not have many options left and that Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto could marshal the requisite numbers to win if it secured the support of Charity Ngilu’s Narc and Najib Balala’s Republican Congress Party.

Legal implications

The then three principals of the coalition — Mr Kenyatta, Mr Mudavadi and Mr Ruto — were also informed of the legal implications and asked to go and sleep over the matter, the aide of one of the principals said.

In the morning, Mr Mudavadi called Mr Kenyatta seeking a meeting.

“They met at Mr Kenyatta’s house in the morning and Mr Mudavadi expressed his intention to pull out.”

It was then agreed that the separation should be made as painless as possible as the tussle had “hurt the fortunes of the parties involved.”

To ensure this, a document entitled “Agreement on Consensual and Amicable Termination of the Addendum dated 4th December 2012 signed by and on behalf of The National Alliance (TNA), United Republican Party (URP) and United Democratic Front (UDF)” was drafted.

It reads: “By free consent but without prejudice to possible political co-operation before or after the General Election of March 4 2013, we The  National Alliance (TNA), United Republican Party (URP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) do hereby terminate Addendum number 1 signed by us on 4th December 2012, and do hereby discharge each of the parties hereto from all legal and political obligations ensuing from the said Addendum.”

The document will be signed by the chairmen of the three parties.

On Friday, while responding to journalists who sought to know what dropping Mr Mudavadi meant for the “dark forces” the Gatundu MP said curtly: “Shetani ameshindwa (The devil had been defeated).”
However, the coalition not rule out working with Mr Mudavadi in future.

Mr Kenyatta, who joined Mr Ruto and URP chairman Francis Kaparo in receiving assistant ministers Mohamed Hussein Gabow and Mohammud Mohammed into the Jubilee coalition through URP,  exuded confidence their alliance would still win without Mr Mudavadi.

Sinking ship

“ODM is a sinking ship and Cord will not be able to hold together,” he said.

Other leaders who were defecting to URP were Nakuru mayor Mohammed Suraw and former Mandera Central MP Billow Kerrow.

But in a statement sent to newsrooms last evening, Mr Mudavadi’s party termed the agreement entered into with the URP and TNA fraudulent.

“The statement …was procured on the basis of fraudulent misrepresentation on the part of TNA and URP.  Accordingly, UDF Party has decided that it is not bound by a contract so procured,” said its secretary-general, Mr Dan Ameyo.

He said the party would proceed with its programmes as if the agreement never existed.

And Mr Mudavadi, through his spokesman Kibisu Kabatesi, said reports that Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto have purportedly “dropped” him from the Jubilee coalition paint the two as dishonourable, heartless and cheeky to the extreme.

“Their claim is impolite and an abuse of the collective intelligence of Jubilee coalition supporters and Kenyans who are aware of legal provisions governing political coalitions,” said Mr Kabatesi in a statement sent from Nyeri where Mr Mudavadi addressed a rally.

Mr Mudavadi called on Kenyans to take note of the “incurable lack of honour of the pair and pass their verdict next year.”

And a lobby group campaigning for Prime Minister Raila Odinga is now asking Mr Mudavadi to join ODM.