Fierce lobbying is underway for coveted, powerful positions in the mega Jubilee Party, just nine days to the official launch.
President Uhuru Kenyatta's TNA and Deputy President William Ruto's URP will get six of the 21 national positions. The other 13 Jubilee affiliate parties will share the remaining 15 positions.
The launch of the party is on September 10 in a three-day JP jamboree involving more than 123,000,000 delegates and others.
Though there are hundreds of positions down to the polling station level, the focus is on the 21 national offices and 47 county chairmanships.
Professionals are also angling for key party organisations, including the secretariat, advisory council, Jubilee Foundation, business council, the council of elders, the elections board and the county elections board.
The county elections board will run hotly contested primaries.
Election for the positions had been anticipated on September 9, ahead of the main launch on September 10 at the Moi International Sports Complex, Kasarani.
However, the Jubilee Party constitution to be ratified on September 9 says the positions will be filled through consensus.
"The merger Party shall agree by consensus on the distribution and sharing of Party positions among officials of dissolved parties having regard to the respective strengths of the dissolved parties," the document says.
According to insiders, TNA and URP will hold positions of Party Leader, Deputy Party Leader, National Chairman, Secretary General, National Organising Secretary and National Treasurer.
Three weeks ago, Uhuru and Ruto indicated they were not keen on taking up positions, though there are suggestions they become Party Leader and Deputy Party Leader.
Expert comment:
URP will hold positions of National Chairman and Organising Secretary and TNA will take Secretary General and National Treasurer positions.
Other than the 21 national officials, 19 positions will up for grabs in every county, 11 at every constituency, 11 at every ward and 11 at every polling station.
The contest at the county level is because all county chairmen, secretaries, treasurers, organising secretaries, women leaders, youth leaders and heads of persons with disabilities will be part of the National Governing Council.
The NGC is the second-highest JP organ and will include the Party Leader and Deputy Party Leader. It will also have members of the National Executive committee, all party MPs, governors, majority and minority leaders and whips to represent MCAs.
Yesterday, Ruto chaired a Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting at his official residence where merger plans were discussed.
Afterward, the presidency confirmed the JP Convention will run from next Thursday to Saturday.
"... the 15 Jubilee affiliate parties' delegations conventions will be on Thursday in various locations. The full party convention will take place on Friday, culminating on Saturday when the Jubilee Party is unveiled in an event expected to attract over 100,000 Kenyans and eminent leaders from other political parties from across the world to witness the historic launch," the statement said.
The issue of positions arose in yesterday's meeting but Ruto insisted party strength be the criterion.
Yesterday, TNA Secretary General Onyango Oloo said no one, other than Uhuru and Ruto, knows who will fill which position.
"The President and DP have already taken over as interim party leader and deputy party leader. We also gave them unfettered authority to appoint interim national officials. All we said is this should be based on the strength of each party and should follow the current political landscape and represent the face of Kenya," Oloo said.
Depending on their strength in elected leaders, the other 10 parties will share out the three positions of Deputy National Chairman, the three Deputy Secretaries General and the three Deputy National Treasurers.
The 10 other JP affiliates will also share the positions of Deputy National Organising Secretary, National Youth Leader, National Women's Leader and National Leader of Persons with Disabilities.
Besides TNA and URP, other parties folding and merging into JP are JAP, APK, UDF, New Ford Kenya, Ford People, UPK, PNU, Republican Council, TIP TIP and GNU.
APK and NFK have been angling for key positions. Their most prominent figures are Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi and Water CS Eugene Wamalwa, respectively.
However, it appears they will be excluded by the JP Constitution's clause on party strength said to have been engineered by TNA and URP, whom it favours.
It also emerged on Saturday that Jubilee Alliance Party will be transformed into the Jubilee Party, which has not been well received by everyone.
Notice of the transformation was published in dailies on Saturday by JAP secretary general Veronica Maina.
"Notice is hereby given Jubilee Alliance Party (JAP), a fully registered political party, wishes to amend constitution, rules, and regulations, title, name and address of the party officials, name, symbol, slogan and colour in accordance with section 20 of the Political Parties Act 2011," reads the advert.
JAP was formed in January 2015 last year as the TNA-URP merger party. It has two legislators, Kabete MP Ferdinand Waititu and Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruiyot.
Jubilee Party's National Steering committee will meet today to iron out issues. It is co-chaired by Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi and former Kwanza MP Noah Wekesa.
The issue of collapsing into JAP-JP will be discussed, as some affiliate parties feel some big party officials are already taking up positions.
Jubilee MPs say the Political Parties Act was amended to allow parties to merge into an already-existing political party.
All affiliates have been instructed to bring 500 delegates to Nairobi, 10 from every county, to the National Delegates Convention,
However, some parties say they should have more delegates than others, as some do not have elected leaders.
This has led to a vicious power struggle between elected county leaders and aspirants, each group trying to control the delegates' list. Hopefuls accuse incumbents of trying to block them from holding party positions to insure their own nominations.