Nasa plans to amend pact on formula for primaries

The National Super Alliance (Nasa) will this week amend the coalition pact deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties after the affiliate parties made some concessions on the formula of conducting primaries.

The technical committee of 12 led by economist David Ndii is said to have met on Friday at the secretariat headquarters in Lavington to lay out details of the updates expected to be done on Wednesday.

The meetings, punctuated by constant consultations with the coalition leaders Mr Raila Odinga (ODM), Mr Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Mr Musalia Mudavadi (ANC) and Mr Moses Wetang’ula (Ford-Kenya) to ensure concurrence at all stages, will intensify throughout the week until mid-March when the team is again expected to give final submissions on how Nasa should pick its presidential candidate.

This is happening as it emerges that the four politicians had inched closer to agreeing on who among them will be the presidential candidate on the August 8 and it is just a question of when this will be made known to the public.

A member of the committee, who spoke in confidence, indicated that the addendum will be handed to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission as political parties rush to beat the Thursday deadline of submitting nomination rules. Parties started handing in the rules last Monday.

The development is a result of the expanded mandate of the committee to include drafting a framework for nominations at the county level to avoid “cannibalism” within the coalition.

LESS TOXIC LINE-UP

It could see some of the fiercest of contenders in places like Mombasa, which has Wiper Secretary-General Hassan Omar who intends to challenge Governor Hassan Joho, who is ODM deputy party leader, agree on a line-up that would be less toxic.

The motivation, one of the experts said, is to ensure they command the numbers in both the Council of Governors, the Senate, the National Assembly and the County Assemblies. Without this, they would hand their competitors a huge advantage as they split votes in their strongholds.

“There is serious house-keeping to be done otherwise we will play into the opponents’ hands. We must agree on where to have one candidate and where to allow affiliates to field candidates. This must be very clear before nominations are done,” the source stated.

After this, the alliance has organised a retreat for the national coordinating committee comprising representatives from all the affiliate parties in two weeks. The tentative venue is Maanzoni lodge, Machakos County.

A senior politician familiar with the diary of the committee confided to us that an announcement of who the candidate will be is expected to climax the retreat which the four main politicians will attend.
Members of the political wing of the committee Dr Eseli Simiyu, the Ford Kenya Secretary-General, Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama and his Siaya counterpart James Orengo expressed confidence that it won’t be long before they tell Kenyans who the Nasa flagbearer will be.

“The Nasa train left the station on Wednesday when we signed the coalition pact. That was the clearest demonstration that we are going the whole hog. The journey of uprooting Jubilee from power must be accomplished,” Mr Muthama said.

Mr Orengo said the fact that the coalition has held together since the last elections (before Mr Mudavadi recently joined) was testament to the commitment of their leaders to sending Jubilee home.

BEST FORMATION

“We are headed in the right direction. It is without a doubt that this is a coalition made out of necessity to save the country from Jubilee’s misrule,” he said.
The Nasa pact was deposited with the Registrar of Political parties Lucy Ndung’u on Wednesday. The committee is expected to present to the Nasa leaders the best formation of candidate and his running mate, based on empirical findings they hope will beat President Uhuru Kenyatta at the polls.

The Nation has already learnt that one of the suggestions the committee is toying with is the idea of retaining the 2013 line-up which had Mr Odinga as the candidate with Mr Musyoka being the running mate.

But this is a suggestion we gather still needs refining. Were they to win, it is believed Mr Odinga would be a transition president, paving the way for his colleagues after five years.

Each of them wants the opportunity to bell the cat. Mr Musyoka argues that their opponents have stolen Mr Odinga’s victory on two occasions, so it was high time somebody else, in this case him, should be given a chance. Mr Mudavadi argues he offers a safer pair of hands, attracting support from across the country.

However, each one of them has come out to pledge they will stick in the coalition even if they are not named the candidate.

With the window for party hopping and formation of new alliances still open, only time will tell if they will honour the pledge as politicians are known to invest the slightest of excuses when they want to change political allegiance. It has happened before.

Mr Wetang’ula, on the other hand, believes he brings the freshness the ticket needs to force victory. To Mr Odinga’s supporters, this is his last chance to make a stab on the presidency and it would be unfair to him if he were not the candidate given the sacrifices he has made as an opposition leader over the years.

TWO-PRONGED CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
Meanwhile, Nasa leaders have adopted a two-pronged campaign strategy ahead of the General Election they hope will help sway regions regarded as battlegrounds to their side. This will see the principals address separate rallies especially in their own strongholds.
From time to time, they will also hold joint rallies in a show of unity.
Formation of Nasa early last month has signalled official face-off with Jubilee, their rivals and the ruling coalition leading a parallel mobilisation in what could pass as the hardest fought political contest in recent times. The just-concluded mass voter registration by the IEBC has further contributed in driving up political temperatures.
Perhaps nothing demonstrated this better than when no less than the former Director of Public Prosecutions Philip Murgor, a presidential contender himself, complained to the IEBC that the two main political blocs were engaging in pre-mature campaigns.

But Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati, in his response, said no law barred presidential hopefuls from criss-crossing the country to look for votes.

Experts argue that politics of coalitions is no walk in the park. It thrives on trust and the slightest indication that a partner is engaging in guerrilla tactics would spell a death knell.

Jubilee is keenly following whether Nasa’s dream of fielding one candidate will materialise. Like in any political competition, it is in its interest that the coalition members disagree on who to front and go separate ways. They may not admit it in public but private conversations with high-ranking members of Jubilee give a different reality; they agree that it will not be easy to secure a second term in office running against a united opposition.

It is on this basis that we gather of a vicious plot to try and scuttle such prospects. Only time will tell whether this succeeds or not.