Uhuru, Ruto safe ‘but defectors are not’

The Registrar of Political Parties has dismissed a plea by a lawyer who wants the seats of the President and the Deputy President declared vacant after they dissolved their political parties to join the newly formed Jubilee Party.

Mr Robert Mutie had written to the Political Parties Registrar, Ms Lucy Ndung’u, claiming that President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, Mr William Ruto, were in office illegally after they dissolved the parties that brought them to power.

Mr Mutie argued that since Jubilee did not fielded candidates in the last General Election, there was no ruling party because the coalition that formed the government had been dissolved.

Mr Kenyatta’s TNA and Mr Ruto’s URP formed the Jubilee coalition ahead of the 2013 elections. Earlier this month, the two parties, and others, which support them, dissolved and formed the Jubilee Party. On Wednesday, Ms Ndung’u said that there was no vacuum.

She quoted Section 11 (7) of the Political Parties Act in declining to declare that there was no political party forming the government.

“Where a party merges under this section, a member of the political party that has merged with another political party shall be deemed to be a member of the new political party,” she explained.

She said that all the assets and liabilities, rights and obligations of all the dissolved parties shall remain the assets and liabilities of the new political party, including entitlement to the Political Parties Fund.

“These provisions, therefore, ensure that all the membership and other records of all the dissolved parties are merged and become the records of the new political party. There is no lacuna,” she said.

She also said that her office had no mandate to declare which parties were in government or the opposition.

However, she said that ODM MPs and governors who had defected to the Jubilee Party might lose their seats if procedures to delist them are appropriately followed.

POLITICAL PARTIES ACT

This could lead to by-elections with just months to the General Election expected in August next year.
However, should electoral commissioners leave office, holding by-elections could be impossible without new commissioners. President Kenyatta signed the law paving the way for the appointment of commissioners last week. On Monday, religious leaders picked the nominees of the panel that will interview the applicants seeking to replace the team led by Mr Ahmed Issack Hassan.

Ms Ndung’u said “the law is not on the side of the leaders who decamped from the parties that had nothing to do with the Jubilee merger.
“What ODM has initiated is the legal process under Section 14 of the Political Parties Act. The party is required to initiate an internal mechanism of dealing with the issue,” she said. “If the party structures find that the members have contravened the law they may write to the registrar to ask that they be removed from the party register.”

Once this is done, she will notify the electoral commission that the leaders have been deregistered from their parties. The IEBC will then take the necessary action against them, including asking the Speaker to declare their seats vacant. She warned that the law was not in favour of the defectors.

On Wednesday, ODM declared that it would push for the expulsion of those found guilty of violating the party’s constitution.

“Even if it is only one month to elections we cannot allow people to violate the law with abandon. We will deal with the defectors mercilessly,” said the party’s Director of Elections, Mr Junet Mohammed.

One of the affected MPs, Mr Mpuru Aburi, told the Nation that he took the decision to join Jubilee boldly, knowing that he could risk his political seat. However, he said he was prepared for a by-election.

“When I was defecting I had made a decision already. Even (ODM leader) Raila (Odinga) made a similar decision and faced the electorate. I am ready for the by-election,” Mr Aburi said.

Kisii Deputy Governor Joash Maangi said he would go to court to challenge the Elections Act.

“That Act is a bad law. Freedom of association is given by the Constitution and cannot be taken by a mere Act of Parliament,” he said.
However, he insisted that he remains a member of the ODM and that he would respond accordingly once he receives a demand letter from the party.