Party heads threaten court action

Democratic Party of Kenya and Narc-Kenya on Saturday disagreed with the move by President Kibaki to set a date, October 12, for PNU grassroots elections.

Terming the move illegal, the disgruntled leaders threatened to take the matter to court to bar PNU from recruiting individual members.

But despite the protests by leaders of key PNU constituent parties, party programmes coordinator Moses Kuria maintained on Saturday that a recruitment drive would begin this week.

“This will take place at the constituency, locational, sub-locational and polling centre levels,” he said, adding that PNU will also embark on a nation-wide campaign to open branch offices in all the country’s 210 constituencies.

At a Parliamentary Group Meeting chaired by the President on Friday at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, October 12 was set as the date for PNU grassroots elections. At the same meeting, interim regional officials were appointed to spearhead the process.

Democratic Party chairman Joseph Munyao, Narc-Kenya’s Martha Karua and Ford-Kenya boss Musikari Kombo were not appointed among the interim regional officials.

The three have one thing in common; they are strongly opposed to the merger of PNU constituent parties.

Mr Munyao dismissed the move saying: “First and foremost, there is no MP who is a PNU member per se except for the President. They are all sponsored by other political parties.”

“It is shocking and surprising that there are still some individuals who continue to confuse the head of state that PNU will survive,” Mr Munyao told the Sunday Nation on the phone.

During the PGM, it was agreed that PNU will have both corporate and individual membership. However, corporate members are supposed to comply with the Political Parties Act individually.

The meeting agreed that each party will have to hold grassroots elections to determine their regional leaders and forward the names to the PNU headquarters.

Narc-Kenya secretary general Danson Mungatana described the decision as the wrong path for PNU.

Expulsion

“If the registrar of societies does not take quick action to bar this, then we’ll consider further action, including going to court,” he said.

The Friday meeting was attended by 57 legislators including six from DP. Mr Munyao yesterday warned rebel members to be loyal to their parties or risk expulsion.

The recently enacted Political Parties Act demands that all political parties conduct grassroots elections to determine their regional leaders, as well as have presence on the ground.

Other parties have not yet scheduled the dates for their elections but Prime Minister Raila Odinga last week announced that ODM top organs were planning the elections.