Lawmakers at the National Assembly burned the midnight oil Wednesday to pass the contentious Political Parties (Amendment) Bill, 2021 setting the stage for the formation of coalition political parties.
Coalitions have existed in the country before but have never operated as a political party where all members fully ascribe to its ideology.
However, their attrition rate has remained high with the entities outliving their usefulness after proponents form government or lose elections.
ODM leader Raila Odinga formed two coalitions – Cord and National Super Alliance - ahead of the 2013 and 2017 elections respectively.
But the entities, including the Jubilee coalition, barely survive beyond the electoral cycle, posing governance challenges as principals pull apart.
The just-passed bill now defines a political party to include an association of citizens with an identifiable ideology or programme constituted for the purpose of public policy or nominating candidates to contest elections.
It also defines a political party as including a coalition political party, the same meaning a coalition that is registered by the registrar as a political party.
A coalition political party shall not be required to comply with the requirement for a statement of ideology and official website, the bill provides.
Once members of a coalition deposit a coalition agreement for the formation of a coalition political party, the registrar issues the coalition political party with a certificate of full registration.
The proposed law also provides that a member of a coalition shall not be a member of another coalition, in a bid to end incessant cases of party hopping.
Also provided in the proposed dispensation is that members of a coalition political party will not field two candidates for one electoral contest – scenarios that have seen some perform dismally.
Kenya practices a presidential system but has no rules limiting the number of MPs tied to the president’s party.
However, numbers count when it comes to conducting legislative business hence the bid to form coalitions to shore up numbers. In Kenya, a simple majority is 175 members of the 349.
But for major decisions, a two-thirds majority of 233 members is required, forcing like-minded parties to work together from time to time - albeit with no formal arrangements in place as there is no structure for recognising coalitions as single outfits.
Coalitions are commonplace in other jurisdictions globally, namely the United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Finland, India, Australia, and Armenia among others.
In Australia, conservative parties and liberal national parties are in a coalition. The arrangements exist at the both the state and territory level.
Canadians have a system where the Liberal and Conservative parties have worked together to form government.
A political party is required to win at least 170 seats or more to form the government. If no party wins a majority, the sitting prime minister remains until he or she formally resigns or is dismissed.
India’s first successful coalition was by the Bharatiya Janata Party under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with Atal Bihari and run government for five years. Parties must have at least 272 members or more to form the government.
For Israelis, parties come together to fore the Knesset, which comprises of 120 electoral seats.
Parties coalesce to get a majority in the House which has a central role in decision making.
