Reprieve for Munya as tribunal rejects dissolution of PNU

Meru Governor Peter Munya in court on October 25, 2016 for the verdict on the dissolution of the Party of National Unity (PNU) and its merger with the Jubilee Party. A tribunal has ruled that PNU did not dissolve. PHOTO | MAUREEN KAKAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The three-member tribunal has also ruled that Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung'u acted in an unprocedural manner in gazetting the alleged PNU dissolution.
  • The tribunal has further ruled that James Kamama and Alfonse Musyoki, who signed documents and took them to the registrar as party officials, were not the appropriate persons to do so.
  • Consequently, the tribunal ordered Ms Ndung’u to publish a gazette notice in two weeks’ time, correcting the error.

A faction of former President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity that is strongly opposed to the merger with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee, was relieved on Tuesday after a tribunal quashed the purported merger decision.

The group, which is led by Meru Governor Peter Munya, cheered in court as soon as the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal read out its ruling that the gazette notice that announced the merger was null and void.

The tribunal, which comprised Mr Kyalo Mbobu, Mr James Atema and Ms Paul Ngotho, criticised Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u for signing the said gazette notice dissolving PNU a day before the resolution and documents submitted were received in her office.

“If the gazette notice was signed on September 8, how then did her office receive the documents from party officials on September 9? Clearly, this shows that the registrar reached the merger decision before the party met to dissolve, which we consider a serious procedural anomaly,” they ruled.

While delivering the verdict, Mr Mbobu, who chairs the tribunal, said that Ms Ndung’u ought to have rejected the request to gazette the merger since the party’s secretary is the one required to tender documents for that process.

The tribunal faulted the fact that the registrar went ahead to sign the gazette notice yet documents for the merger had been submitted by Mr John Kamama, who is the party chairman, and Mr Alfonse Musyoki, the organising secretary.

Tribunal members further faulted Ms Ndung’u for failing to counter check what PNU’s constitution states in matters to do with dissolution and merger.

WRANGLES IN PNU

“The registrar acted with dishonesty, yet she is a public official. We have no doubt she was aware of the wrangles in PNU and this tribunal expected a lot more caution from her,” they said.

Consequently, the tribunal ordered Ms Ndung’u to publish a gazette notice in two weeks’ time, correcting the error.

Mr Kamama and Mr Musyoki were not spared either as the tribunal ordered them to pay the costs of the suit since they undertook a mandate that was not theirs and caused the party to be at a standstill awaiting the determination of a matter that could have been easily avoided.

However, minutes after the verdict was delivered, the two had already filed a suit seeking to stop the much awaited National Delegates’ Conference set for Friday, October 28.

But the tribunal declined their request, saying that the conference was advertised nearly 30 days ago and threw out their bid to have the new case considered as urgent.

In his address to party supporters, Mr Munya announced that PNU members were happy with the verdict and were looking forward to the delegates’ meeting.

He said that PNU was not against merging with other political parties, but was opposed to a situation where parties are forced to merge in order to achieve certain political outcomes that undermine the freedom of its party members to associate freely.

“We thank the tribunal for upholding justice and declaring that PNU never merged, that the merger never took place and obviously the next thing is that the convention is going to take place, we are happy and ready for Friday even if others try to stop it,” Mr Munya said.