Why Jubilee Party wants IEBC to man nominations for 2017 polls

The fear of mass defections to rival parties is behind the move by the unified Jubilee Party to ask the electoral commission to conduct its primaries for next year’s elections.

Jubilee is also pushing for parties to hold primaries on the same day to avoid hopping by losers.

And nowhere is this fear more pronounced than in the Rift Valley where Deputy President William Ruto is facing stiff opposition from Gideon Moi’s Kanu and Mashinani party of Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto.

Jubilee Party is being seen as the DP’s vehicle for 2022 and his Rift Valley bastion is key for his political ambitions. The thinking thus is that IEBC will conduct nominations that can be seen as free and fair to avoid defections. Jubilee is keen to avoid the debacle that was the ODM nominations in 2013 that led to defections and an overall reduction in the support of the party and its leader Raila Odinga.

Governor Ruto and Mr Moi backed by disgruntled United Republican Party (URP) politicians are organising themselves for what they hope would be a painful bursting of the Jubilee bubble.

But National Assembly Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso, an ally of the DP who has said she will run against Governor Ruto on the Jubilee ticket, dismissed the argument that there will be fallouts in the nomination.

In fact, she argued, having the nominations from all parties done on one day will promote democracy.

BEST CANDIDATES WILL WIN

“As Jubilee, we want people to go into nominations knowing that the best candidate will win. Gone will be the days when a few individuals sit and hand over nomination certificates to individuals in some hotel,” said Dr Laboso.

The Sotik MP said: “The Rift Valley is fully pro-Jubilee. People like Governor Ruto can claim that he is leading a revolt but he will soon realize he is alone on this.”

Kanu and Mashinani say they are organising themselves to reap from expected fallout in the Jubilee nominations, with the first order of business being to oppose a bid by Jubilee to have the primaries done on the same day to prevent party hopping.

Analysts believe the jostling to get Jubilee Party tickets in its strongholds of the Rift Valley and Mt Kenya region will be a do-or-die affair and that the fallout will be acrimonious.

The stakes for the Deputy President are very high.

The success of the party in the Rift Valley in the August polls will mean he will be halfway through with his State House bid in 2022.

Should he get it right and consolidate the region to his fold in the 2017 polls, analysts argue, the DP would have established his position as the region’s kingpin which he would then use as a bargaining chip in the 2022 elections.

But Governor Ruto dismissed the plan as selfish.

The governor elected on a URP ticket accused the DP of being dictatorial, saying said that the new party was a mistake and not a priority for the Rift Valley, now.

“The people of the Rift Valley deserve a better reason to back this merger than just 2017, and 2022 or which tribe will be in power in those two elections,” Governor Ruto told the Saturday Nation.

MANY ASPIRANTS

“As Mashinani, we have received a lot of interest from many aspirants who already think that Jubilee is going to impose their preferred candidates on voters and close the door for them to contest on other parties.”

But Governor Ruto hinted that he will not stop his supporters from backing President Kenyatta for re-election.

“What stops people from voting for Mashinani candidate in the other posts, and be free to elect anyone as their President? No one,” said the vocal county boss.

Then there is the Moi family, a dynasty that sees DP Ruto as a Johnny-come-lately who has gone full throttle to anger the family that once ruled the roost in the valley.

The DP’s visits to Baringo have been laced with one message: It was disrespectful for Senator Moi not to back him when he backed his father.
Nonsense, Kanu Secretary General Nick Salat says.

“When he says he helped President Moi, we laugh and ask: Just who helped who between Ruto and Mzee? Kanu is not shaken and we do not owe Ruto anything,” he said.

Mr Salat said the proposal by Jubilee to have the nominations done on the same day by the electoral agency was based on fear.

“Jubilee is the most selfish party to ever exist. They changed the law to allow other parties to join them, and now that they are not sure,” said Mr Salat, “they want it changed to lock out those people who will be dissatisfied with their process.”

Jubilee backed the amendment of the Political Parties Act to enable parties and politicians to freely move into Jubilee. It has also proposed that nominations for all parties be done on the same day, ostensibly to prevent “party hopping.”

Said Governor Ruto: “Now they are lying that they want the IEBC to run its campaigns when they have been going all over saying who their preferred candidates are. People know it’s not going to work and Mashinani will welcome those who will be affected by this.”

Laikipia University scholar Prof Malawi Rotich said that though Mashinani and Kanu might not have a realistic chance of outsmarting the DP, they remained a critical entity in the region’s political scene.

“The two parties will remain alternatives because of fear of the unknown in the party primaries,” said Prof Malawi.

BATTLING THEIR EGOS

“Though their chances are slim, Senator Gideon and Governor Ruto are battling their egos and would rather remain their own men than be pushed around.”

Former powerful Kanu-era Internal Security Minister and Kuresoi South MP Zakayo Cheruiyot dismissed the Jubilee move as retrogressive, saying the DP didn’t have the Kalenjin in his pocket.

The MP accused his party leader of disrespecting other politicians.

“The DP does not have Kalenjins in his pocket. We cannot be put in a pot and then when it gets hot, you close it. And William Ruto is not the Rift Valley kingpin because Kalenjins alone do not make the region,” Mr Cheruiyot told the Saturday Nation.

The MP added: “For William Ruto to tell Kalenjins that they need to box themselves into a party is wrong. It’s even worse when he has this unrealistic campaign strategy of 2022.”

But even as Governor Ruto exuded confidence, his friends Emurua Dikir MP Johana Ng’eno and Narok Senator Stephen Ntutu led a delegation to State House where the President implored them to join the new party.

The highlight of the visit was the pronouncement by former powerful minister William ole Ntimama that he would back the new party.

But Mr Ng’eno said he had not defected to Jubilee.

“We met the President to talk about development and he asked us to join Jubilee. Only Ntimama and Hon Lempurkel from Samburu defected,” said Mr Ng’eno who has led a stinging attack against the DP in the region.

Mr Ng’eno has been at almost every function that the governor has organized to popularize his new party and even invited him to his constituency last week.

But even then, analysts said that the fact that he had been part of the delegation meant a lot for the revolt in the Rift Valley led by the governor.