• Some of the financiers are known to Aukot alone, they claimed in their petition filed at the Milimani law court.
Image: FILE
Three officials of the Thirdway Alliance have moved to court seeking orders to stop party leader Ekuro Aukot from proceeding with his relaunched Punguza Mizigo initiative to amend the Constitution.
Thirdway Alliance deputy party leader Angela Mwikali, deputy secretary general Phelister Wakesho and Hilda Gachahi, who chairs the national women's caucus, have also accused Aukot of running away from financial accountability.
They claim that Aukot has never disclosed how much was raised during the first initiative and from what sources was the party able to finance the process apart from donations and contributions from well wishers.
Some of the financiers are known to Aukot alone, they claimed in their petition filed at the Milimani law courts.
The three have protested, saying Aukot solely decided to relaunch the Punguza Mizigo initiative without any authority from the party's National Executive Committee and without calling for any meeting to review the party's previous performance.
The officials said in their court documents that the current second phase of the Punguza Mizigo push to amend the Constitution has no blessings of Thirdway Alliance's supreme decision making organ, NEC.
“That the petitioners state that there was no National Executive Committee meeting of the 2nd respondent(Thirdway Alliance party) that was held to approve the second attempt at Punguza Mizigo,” said the three in their petition.
They said NEC has never held a meeting to make a common position on the party's next approach after the initial initiative flopped at the county assemblies.
In the petition drawn by Caroline Oduor and Associates Advocates, the three claimed that NEC has not approved the withdrawal of party funds or authorised any form of fundraising to finance the second attempt to amend the Constitution.
“The petitioners wish to state that the current initiative of Punguza Mizigo Kenya is an initiative pushed by the Aukot using the name, instruments, organs and facilities Thirdway Alliance without any authority and is particularly against the interests of the party and its membership,” they said.
The trio said that without NEC's input, Auko's Punguza Mizigo initiative that he launched last week, should be declared null and void as it is against the interests of the officials and members of the party.
“That there is no other party organ or party official who may mandate initiation of any activity of the party or any financial transactions without the authority of the National Executive Committee,” the officials added.
The three Thirdway Alliance officials threw their weight behind the Building Bridges Initiate crusade that seeks to address the country's ills by proposing far-reaching amendments to the supreme law.
“Punguza Mizigo is against the interests of officers and members of the party, because without any justifiable cause, it sets members of the Thirdway Alliance party in competition with their fellow countrymen who have adopted an initiative that seeks to achieve the same changes that were being sought,” the officials said.