•Manyora says ODM needs to put in place working secretariat.
•He says the party needs to have a realistic constitution and rules.
Image: FILE
First, it is very difficult to advise ODM and political parties in Kenya in general. So long as ODM remains the property of Raila Odinga and Jubilee the property of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, there is very little these parties can achieve. Even if you give them the best secretariat, the party chiefs will still make their own decisions.
But if it were not for that (individual ownership), you could simply ask ODM to have a working secretariat. That means hiring serious professionals, conduct party elections, and fill the positions with competent applicants.
Secondly, the party must make sure it has realistic constitution and rules that are followed by members. For example, the party should be honest with itself and accept that it will not carry out democratic nominations. There are times it will be forced to conduct direct nominations. Let that be clearly spelt out in the constitution and in the party rules.
But all these will be useless because the so-called owners of the parties will do what they want. So, it is even a waste of time to advise them. Why advise people who won’t listen? The decision will still be made by one person and that person will do what he wants.
So until and unless this mentality of having one person as the final decision maker in the party is done away with, all other processes are simply a waste of time. But my advise to them would be to have a robust and independent secretariat.
And, by the way, they will continue paying for it. If parties did not belong to Musalia Mudavadi, Odinga, Kalonzo Musyioka and Moses Wetang'ula, NASA would have won very many seats, not only in Nairobi but across the country.
But because the parties are owned by individuals, they lost seats they would have otherwise easily won.
So, my advice to political parties, not only ODM, is to have a working secretariat. Let the structures work. Let them have proper constitutions and rules that are realistic. Anything short of a working secretariat is a waste of time and money.
The University don spoke to the Star