Why Jubilee Party wants UDA de-registered
The Registrar of Political Parties Ms Ann Nderitu.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is going for his deputy again as the ruling Jubilee Party accuses the breakaway UDA of stealing its membership data.
Jubilee says UDA is using stolen data to hoodwink Kenyans that it is popular. As a result, it has approached Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu to have UDA de-registered over claims of breaching the ruling party’s databases and stealing up to two million of its membership data.
But the allegations were quickly dismissed by UDA secretary general Veronica Maina, who directed Saturday Nation to Ms Nderitu for a clearer picture of the situation. “Those are malicious and unfounded allegations. Kindly direct those questions to the Jubilee Party itself and the ORPP. They (Jubilee) better have their facts right; this is so wrong,” she said.
Jubilee deputy secretary general Joshua Kutuny yesterday intimated to Saturday Nation that they had asked Ms Nderitu’s office to subject UDA membership list to an audit, arguing some former Jubilee officials stole their data and handed it to Ruto's party.
The Cherang’any MP disclosed that some of the officials who were feeding UDA with such data had been fired, noting that the ruling party has embarked on an audit to establish the exact number of members UDA took with the assistance of rogue officials.
Staff changes
“We are dealing with crooks. They did not build any data. What they are using was lifted from the Jubilee Centre. One of the reasons some of the coordinators were affected in the staff changes recently is because of feeding UDA with our data,” he said.
UDA, which DP Ruto is expected to use for his State House stab in the August General Election, is only 11 months old since he acquired and rebranded it but now has 5.1 million registered members, according to its website.
The DP had said they were busy building a national party that would accommodate everyone after being elbowed out of Jubilee. But the President’s wing is accusing them of dishonesty. “The political infrastructure UDA is using is that of Jubilee. The Office of Registrar of Political Parties is aware of this and we are waiting for the response,” said Mr Kutuny.
Immediately after the audit is completed, Jubilee will seek the intervention of other government agencies to look into the matter so that the party can be de-registered if it is found guilty, Mr Kuttuny said. “We will move to court and have the investigative agencies launch their own probe into the matter,” he said.
Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu said: “Yes we are aware UDA stole our data on membership, but they have to get them to sign resignation letters.”
Ms Nderitu told Nation.Africa the only thing she knows is that Kenyans started raising concerns when her office rolled out digital reforms. “It is true there are concerns people finding themselves in the register of parties they have not consented to. This is why we are asking Kenyans to resign from those parties on e-citizen,” she said.
In September last year, Jubilee purged 14 of its regional directors who have since been accused of leaking data to Ruto party. The National Management Committee resolved to overhaul the Jubilee Secretariat.
Those affected were individuals who were representing the interests of the 12 parties which formed Jubilee like The National Alliance (TNA), APK, United Republican Party (URP), the Unity Party of Kenya (UPK), RC, Ford People, NFP and United Democratic Forum (UDF) among others.
Formed in September 2016 after the merger of 12 parties, Jubilee Party became a monolith, with at least one elected representative in 41 of Kenya’s 47 counties.
Those who were sent home included Joseph Mathai, Mwendani Franklin, John Melita, John Ntwiga, Anthony Kaara, Kennedy Merita, Capt. Rt. Wafubwa, Abraham Limo, Stephen Mwanga, Susan Maina, Idle Mohammed, Nicholas Bore, Mary Karen Sorobit and Peter Kahara among others.
Ms Nderitu told Nation.Africa that the only thing she knows is that when her office began rolling out digital reforms, it is the time Kenyans started raising concerns on finding themselves as members of parties they did not consent to.
Visit e-citizen
“It is true there are concerns people finding themselves in the register of parties they do not have consented to. This is the reason why we are asking Kenyans to resign from those parties on e-citizen,” she said.
The registrar asked Kenyans who are disgruntled with their membership in parties they do not subscribe to their ideologies to visit e-citizen to resign from them noting that her office will soon issue USSD code to make the process easier.
“Soon, we are going to provide USSD code to make resignation very easy and joining any party they want easier. Kenyans have raised a number of concerns on a case by case basis and we are handling through the digital reforms we have rolled out to ensure that in future such a scenario does not occur,” she elucidated.
She further added that: “We have also witnessed a high number on e-citizen platforms. We are processing 40,000-50,000 resignations per day unlike when we started where we could only process just 1000 cases.”
Mid last year, Data Protection Commissioner Immaculate Kassait asked Kenyans to file complaints in case they have been wrongfully listed as members of political parties.
She said her office was engaging the Registrar of Political Parties and other data controllers to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act, 2019.
“As of June, 24, 2021 the Office of Data Protection had received over 200 complaints from aggrieved individuals who had been registered as members of various political parties without their consent,” reads the statement then.
Expressed frustrations
Kenyans had expressed frustrations on social media after they found their names enlisted as members of various political groups without their knowledge.
Most of them were shocked to find out they belong to political parties they don't subscribe to, terming the move a breach of the right to privacy.
They accused the office of the registrar of political parties and various political parties of violations of data protection law.
Last week, the government unveiled a new data protection curriculum and a strategic plan to equip Kenyans with skills on data privacy seven months to the August 9 General Election.
Ms Kassait said the efforts are geared towards enlightening Kenyans on data protection laws in an electioneering period where data rights violation is rife.
“This programme is a result of intense research on data protection in the country. We will enable the participants to have an understanding of data and how to ensure its compliance across the different sectors,” she said.
Over the past one month, politicians have been begging voters to elect them in the upcoming polls through mobile SMS messaging without their consent, a massive breach of the Data Protection Act which came to force in November 2019.
So far, Ms Kassait revealed, her office has received 442 data privacy complaint cases and resolved 298 cases.
