Agency moves to rectify irregularities in party membership fiasco

Acting Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung'u speaks at Crown Plaza Hotel on January 29, 2014. She has said anomalies concerning registration of members of political parties will be sorted. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • She said that the clean-up of party registers had started ahead of nominations, which are expected to be done between April 13 and 26.
  • Political parties have intensified the search for members ahead of the primaries.

The Registrar of Political Parties has said it will deregister everyone who has been listed as a member of any outfit fraudulently.

The agency's acting head Lucy Ndung'u's statement follows complaints by Kenyans who found themselves registered as members of political parties without their knowledge.

"We have agreed with parties that the moment people write to us that they were fraudulently registered with the party, they are automatically removed," She said on phone.

Ms Ndung'u said the list of party members has been made accessible to all for verification.

More importantly, she said that the clean-up of party registers had started ahead of nominations, which are expected to be done between April 13 and 26.

"If you are fraudulently registered, email us a letter of complaint or resignation and a copy of ID to [email protected]. You can also call our county offices," Ms Ndung’u said in a notice.

While others found that they had been registered in parties they either do not belong to or are not even aware exist, some faced the harsher reality that their identity cards had been used to register other people.

In other cases, people registered in 2012 were aged 16, which is two years below the minimum requirement age of 18 when one can get an ID.

Most of those that the Nation spoke to had their registration details taken in 2012, with all those who were members of the 12 parties that folded to form Jubilee Party in September last year automatically being listed as members of the new party.

The law requires only members registered in a political party, whose list will be provided by the registrar, to participate in party primaries.

RECRUITMENT DRIVE

And with a March 19 deadline for parties to submit a list of their members to the electoral commission before the primaries, those that have not rectified their details risk being locked out of the nominations.

On Saturday, many Kenyans logged onto the site to do so.

"We want parties to have only genuine members that subscribe to them. That is why we need Kenyans to write to us," Ms Ndung’u explained.

Those who want to resign from their current parties and join others, she said, should also write and the affected parties will be notified before the change is made.

Meanwhile, political parties have intensified the search for members ahead of the primaries.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party has already netted six million members, with a target of eight million by March 19 when the list will be sent to the polls team.

"It is the members that will do the nomination and if you do not get a good number and you do the primaries, the candidates selected will not be a reflection of the will of the people," Mr Raphael Tuju, the head of the Jubilee Party Secretariat, said.

ODM, on the other hand, has netted four million members in a digital recruitment drive launched in March 2015, up from 800,000 in 2013.

"The response from our members across the country has been enormous and encouraging," secretary-general Agnes Zani said.

One can check their party membership status on the registrar’s website (http://ppmstatus.orpp.or.ke/ppregstatus/public.aspx).