No easy way to paradise for Thirdway Alliance party leader Aukot
What you need to know:
- Under his stewardship, Thirdway Alliance has, however, failed to show a clear-cut difference from the other political parties that he sought to dethrone.
- The party has largely remained a one-man show and has clearly given Aukot a platform to project his image.
In the 2017 polls, Thirdway Alliance fared badly, not clinching even a single MCA seat.
During a recent radio show, embattled Thirdway Alliance party leader Ekuru Aukot claimed that it was the efforts of his party that led to the Supreme Court’s annulment of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s August 2017 win.
“It is not ODM that occasioned the nullification of the presidential vote,” he said on the early morning show. “Many people think it was ODM. It was not. It was the Thirdway Alliance that did. We are the only party that conducted a thorough audit of the system of transmission of the presidential results.”
According to the revelation, Thirdway Alliance conducted an audit of the system used by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to transmit results from 27 constituencies and upon identifying flaws, prepared a 20-page report that they filed in the court to reinforce the petition where ODM leader Raila Odinga was challenging the outcome of the presidential election.
“It is on the basis of the document that the Supreme Court nullified the August 2017 poll,” he said.
The assertions of the man who garnered a little over 21,000 votes in the presidential election are typical of Dr Aukot; a politician with a penchant for the rhetorical.
Third alternative
The name “Thirdway” infers a third alternative. It was in this context that he formed the party over six years ago to offer Kenyans an alternative to the order that existed at that time — Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Alliance and Raila’s Coalition of Reforms and Democracy (Cord).
Under his stewardship, Thirdway Alliance has, however, failed to show a clear-cut difference from the other political parties that he sought to dethrone.
The party has largely remained a one-man show and has clearly given Aukot a platform to project his image.
This could in part explain the wrangles that have engulfed the outfit from within. On Tuesday, eight members of its national executive committee filed a suit at the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal and obtained interim orders barring Dr Aukot from accessing the party headquarters until the case is determined.
The officials had on August 26 suspended Dr Aukot, accusing him of a number of vices that they allege are a violation of Chapter Six of the Constitution.
Having been the most visible member of the party, the onslaught against him must be humbling, and given the ongoing tiffs in various political outfits, it goes to show that Thirdway Alliance is hardly a breath of fresh air in Kenya’s party politics.
In the 2017 polls, Thirdway Alliance fared badly, not clinching even a single MCA seat.
Ambitious initiative
Dr Aukot would thereafter launch an ambitious initiative to amend the 2010 constitution that he took part in drafting by being the CEO of the Committee of Experts that came up with the document. His Punguza Mizigo initiative appealed to some sections of the population but it did not go past the county assembly approval phase.
In the whole process, he succeeded in one thing, though, he pulled a miracle that even the combined effort of Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka failed to do in a similar effort in 2015 known as Okoa Kenya. Dr Aukot collected one million signatures, which is no mean feat for a party without a major tribal block as are the big players in the field.
Now, with his erstwhile juniors seeking to kick him out of the party, the political acumen of the man with a PhD in international refugee law is now under a microscope.
