William Ruto, allies have 5 weeks to leave Jubilee

Deputy President William Ruto and all Jubilee Party MPs allied to him have until March 26 to formally join the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu made the revelation yesterday as it emerged that Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua has ordered all public officers who intend to contest in the elections to vacate office by February 8.

“Anybody seeking to participate in the General Election should be a member of the political party of his choice by March 26,” said the registrar.

The date is the last day the law requires political parties to submit their membership register to the political parties’ registrar.

The election operational plan published by the electoral commission requires political parties to submit the list of their registered members to the commission four months before the August 9 General Election, which is April 9.

The Political Parties (Amendment) Act, signed into law by President Uhuru Kenyatta last week, further requires political parties to submit the same list to the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) 14 days before they are submitted to the commission, which will be March 26.

Ms Nderitu told a consultative meeting on access to information framework on elections and media practice that those aspiring to contest in the elections must join political parties of their choice by March 26, warning that there will be no room to defect once the list is submitted to her office.

Allegiance to UDA

There has been debate since the new law came into force as to what will happen when state officers holding elective office defect or lose their membership in a political party that sponsored them to their positions.

The DP and his allies have found themselves in a quandary after the President last week appended his signature to give the Political Parties (Amendment) Bill, 2021, the force of the law.

The Jubilee Party has a significant number of MPs who had declared their allegiance to UDA and there are questions as to whether the MPs and Dr Ruto will continue holding their offices once they resign and officially join UDA, which they have been promoting since his falling out with President Kenyatta.

Even if they resigned, the MPs will get a reprieve from Article 101(5) of the Constitution that bars the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) from conducting by-elections three months to the elections.

Yesterday, Ms Nderitu refused to be drawn into the debate, but pointed out that there is a gap in the law as on the exact time MPs seeking reelection from a political party different from the one that sponsored to Parliament can resign.

Jubilee Secretary General Raphael Tuju said the party would not push to have the MPs or the DP lose their seats since it will end up in unending litigation.

“There are a lot of legal issues, including the contradiction in the law that there cannot be a by-election three months to the General Election,” said Mr Tuju, pointing out that in the ideal situation the MPs should resign.

“What will be the point of having them to lose their seats? Kenya is a litigious society. We are not going to engage in those political sideshows,” he added.

In his order, Mr Kinyua asked all those who aspire to participate in the General Election to surrender all public assets in their charge and prepare comprehensive handover notes to facilitate a smooth transition, to be received by designated officers before February 8.

“Those comprehensive handover notes should lay emphasis on work plans, annotate all public assets handed over, and status of priority national development programmes and projects,” Mr Kinyua said in the January 28 letter.

Cabinet secretaries, chief administrative secretaries, chairpersons of constitutional commissions and principal secretaries and chairs of state corporations will submit their handover notes to the Office of the President.

CEOs of constitutional commissions will hand over to chairpersons; CEOs of state corporations and state agencies will hand over to CSs of the parent ministries with a copy to the board, while all other public officers will hand over to their respective supervisors.

At the same time, the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) assured the public that it has built internet connectivity capacity in the last five years, with 96 per cent of the population covered by 3G and above.

“The ICT network situation has improved in the last five years,” said Mr Fred Ambani, who represented CA boss Ezra Chiloba at the event.

He, however, added that the challenge of building up 100 per cent network connectivity is a work in progress.