Former UDA Secretary-General Cleophas Malala.
President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) has described the short stint of its ousted Secretary General Cleophas Malala as full of toxicity, discord, chaos and drama.
In a statement, the newly installed Secretary General Hassan Omar said Mr Malala, who joined the ruling party in March 2023, failed to deliver on his mandate but was now trying to exploit sympathy following his removal.
He said the decision to sack him from the plum position was collectively taken by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), and not by some individuals as alleged by Mr Malala.
Mr Malala on Thursday claimed that he was ousted after he opposed a plot by some top party officials to impeach Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
He directly linked UDA national chairperson Cecil Mbarire, who is also the Embu Governor and National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah to his removal from the plum position. He also linked the two to the alleged impeachment plot against Mr Gachagua.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Malala was legally and procedurally removed from office as the Secretary General of UDA, and the same acknowledged and ratified by the Registrar of Political Parties. The office subsequently effected the changes as required of it by law,” said Mr Hassan.
“Malala's ouster was a collective decision by the Party's National Executive Committee (NEC), the same organ that had appointed him to hold the position in an "acting" capacity. Suffice it to say, the organ that appointed him is the very one that unanimously decided to replace him.”
He said that Mr Malala’s ‘colourless stint as Secretary General was characterized by melodrama, toxicity, missteps, discord, ruin; a failed leadership in all aspects.’
The ruling party further dismissed Mr Malala’s attempt to link his ouster to the alleged plans to impeach Mr Gachagua. The party described as gross the attempt to link Ms Mbarire and Mr Ichungwa’h to the alleged impeachment motion, saying the allegations are unfounded.
“Let the authors and sponsors of this script perform their poems and plays in other theatres of political deceit and sympathy seeking. The wild performances of these political novices cannot deter the will of the Party's rank and file to steer the Party on its set course of progress and transformation as custodians of the peoples' mandate,” said the Secretary-General.
In a press conference in Nairobi on Thursday, Mr Malala said the climax of his removal was his opposition to the plot to impeach Mr Gachagua. He claimed that he was seen as a stumbling block to the planners of the ouster motion against the second-in-command.
“My ouster had nothing to do with incompetence or my inability to run the UDA party but was a well-choreographed script intended to climax with the impeachment of Deputy President Riagthi Gachagua,” Mr Malala said. “I was effectively profiled and labelled an obstacle towards their evil plot and conspiracy to have Gachagua impeached.”
'A marked man'
But his removal from the plum office had long been in the pipeline before the impeachment talks. For months, some party officials informally said he was a marked man and was on his way out from his swanky office at the Hustler Plaza on Ngong Road.
Mr Malala – a one-time Member of County Assembly and former Kakamega Senator – had a long-running trouble with some UDA members, with the troubles escalating during the party grassroots elections that started in April.
The politician with a razor-sharp tongue was brought in UDA by President Ruto in March 2023 from Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress (ANC), on whose ticket he unsuccessfully contested for Kakamega governorship.
Even at his former party of ANC, Mr Malala had a troubled stay with party officials. He survived expulsion on the basis of a long and winding legal process after falling out with Mr Mudavadi. He is always courting controversies just like in his other life of writing and directing plays.
When he joined UDA, Mr Malala hit the ground running with lofty ideas of a one-party dream for President Ruto with August deadlines to boot.
But his entry rattled some of the Kenya Kwanza affiliate partners, especially ANC and Ford Kenya of National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, as he became pushy in calling for their folding. He went to the extent of calling them village political parties.
“I resigned from ANC because I wanted to show my ANC people the way. I wanted to show them leadership. Like John the Baptist, I came to prepare the way for them. They will eventually come to this merger and know that they can be easily accommodated. I resigned to join the UDA to give the ANC the confidence that having one strong party is not a bad idea,” he told Nation in a previous interview.
On May 30 night, a frustrated Mr Malala shared a video lamenting how he had lost control of the UDA official Facebook page. He claimed the account had been hacked by an individual who is not a member of the UDA secretariat.
This was after his statement purporting to postpone West Pokot constituency elections was roundly dismissed by other party officials, that ordinarily would be answerable to him as the party spokesperson.
Interfere in elections
Mr Malala’s troubles in the party started when some UDA leaders including Senate Majority Leader Boni Khalwale and Didmus Barasa (Kimilili MP) accused him of trying to interfere with the party elections. Senator Khalwale had petitioned the party to restrain Mr Malala from discharging the mandate of his office because of his interests in the party.
Further, an alleged Sh200 million price for the procurement of election tablets is also said to have caused boardroom wars at the party. Dr Ruto is said to have stopped the procurement of 10,000 election tablets at a price of Sh200 million.
Some top party officials are said to have settled on a local supplier, who quoted $150 (Sh20,250) per unit. The figure was estimated at Sh25,000 based on the exchange rate at that time, inclusive of Value Added Tax (VAT), according to officials.
In a previous interview with Nation, Mr Malala admitted that the initial supplier had quoted Sh25,000 per unit. Mr Malala said President Ruto himself later sourced for the tablets from China at $75 (Sh10,125), a half of the initial quotation.
“In Kenya, the tablets cost Sh25,000 per piece. When we scouted for the tablets, we thought we could get them locally, but suppliers made a quotation of about Sh22,000. It was coming to Sh25,000 when you include VAT. It was too expensive,” Mr Malala said.
“The boss (President) procured directly from a manufacturer in China. It was procured at $75 (Sh10,125),” he said.
Mr Gachagua in a recent interview castigated the party over the manner in which it kicked out Mr Malala from office.
"No one consulted me on the ouster of Cleophas Malala. They evicted him at 5am. That is not how a ruling party should be behaving. As a party deputy leader, I wanted to attend but by 6am I was told by my people that the meeting was over," Mr Gachagua said.
