Parties in rush to beat deadline for primaries

Major political parties have lined up a flurry of activities this week to prepare for their primaries in a rush to beat the January 18 deadline.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is expected to release its list of aspirants for various positions on Wednesday.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Party and deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi’s United Democratic Forum (UDF) will meet their aspirants on Friday to brief them on the nominations plan.

ODM and Wiper that are members of the Cord Alliance have already announced that they will hold their primaries on January 10.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s The National Alliance (TNA) and Eldoret North MP William Ruto’s United Republican Party (URP) of the Jubilee Alliance had not settled on the date for the nominations exercise by Sunday evening.

URP national chairman Francis Kaparo said a technical team bringing together officials of URP and TNA was working on how to conduct the primaries.

“We are yet to set the dates, but we will do the nominations with TNA across the country... there is a team working on this,” he stated.

TNA secretary-general Onyango Oloo said in the Jubilee coalition joint nominations, losers will support the winners and insisted that those supporting the Uhuru-Ruto ticket must join the alliance.

In a statement signed by the ODM elections board chairman Franklin Bett, the list of party aspirants will be published on the ODM website and made available at party branches and sub-branches on Wednesday.

A schedule for the nomination exercise will be released later, the statement added.

Wiper and UDF on the other hand issued statements summoning their aspirants for meeting with their respective party leaders on Friday to plan for the primaries.

UDF chairman Hassan Osman said the aspirants’ meeting will precede the party’s convention to endorse Mr Mudavadi’s presidential bid. Both events will be held at the Bomas of Kenya.

The Wiper meeting is, however, reserved for aspirants from the lower eastern counties of Machakos, Makueni and Kitui, which are perceived to be the party’s strongholds.

The meeting will take place on Friday at the Machakos Golf Club at 10am.

The invitation was sent out through a short text message circulated by Mr Musyoka’s spokesman, Kaplich Barsito. 

UDF secretary general Dan Ameyo said the party was still working on the date of the primaries.

“We have not decided when we will hold our nominations but once we do so, we will conduct them in the entire country,” said Mr Ameyo.

But an advertisement in Sunday’s dailies said the UDF primaries were slated for between January 11 and 12.