• Mudavadi said the country is currently facing more dire challenges for anyone to start talking about the merger of parties.
• The Prime CS said the most urgent challenges to the country currently is the drought, the cost of living and settling pending bills among other priorities.
Image: Musalia Mudavadi/Twitter
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has broken ranks with a section of leaders in government who have ignited debate about the merger of parties affiliated to Kenya Kwanza.
Speaking on Thursday during the People Dialogue Festival at National Museum in Nairobi, Mudavadi said the country is currently facing more dire challenges for anyone to start talking about the merger of parties.
"We need to dialogue on the issues affecting the country at the moment, rather than bury our heads in the sand and concentrate on the rhetoric about merging political parties," Mudavadi said.
The Prime CS said the most urgent challenges to the country currently is the drought, the cost of living and settling pending bills among other priorities.
"To me, the issue of a merger or non-merger is actually at the bottom of the priorities," Mudavadi said.
His remarks can easily be interpreted as indirectly targeted at President William Ruto whose UDA party has given clear indications of plans to have all Kenya Kwanza affiliate parties fold up into a giant political machine reminiscent of the 2016 Jubilee.
Newly appointed UDA secretary general Cleophas Malala on February 28 confirmed that the party is pushing for dissolution of affiliates ahead of the 2027 political showdown with Azimio.
"We shall not go into 2027 before we organise ourselves better and this is a sign that President Ruto plans his politics under one colour,” Malala said at his unveiling ceremony at the Hustler Centre.
He said among his priority mandates as the SG was to begin a dialogue with UDA partners to ensure there is one party against their opponents.
“We can not have one government and several colours, that is our position and we shall talk to others,” he said.
Malala has since then repeated those sentiments at different press conferences.
On March 6, he said Ford Kenya's Moses Wetang'ula must resign from his leadership position in Ford Kenya.
"He must first resign as the party leader of Ford Kenya and allow us now to engage the next party leader of Ford Kenya on matters dissolution," he said.
The former Kakamega senator confirmed that he was engaging Lamu Governor Issa Timamy, the acting ANC party leader, over the merger plans.
"I'm not engaging Musalia Mudavadi because he is not the party leader," he said at the Hustler Centre.
UDA holds that Wetang'ula and his Senate counterpart Amason Kingi should have already resigned by virtue of their new status as State officers.
"They are all lawyers, let them resign and allow us to engage the new party leaders," he said.
But Mudavadi said calls for political party merge are premature given the foregoing challenges currently facing the country.
He said if it so turns out to be a necessity, the merger must follow a democratic process as provided for by the Constitutions of the parties in question.
"To enhance democracy, political parties are recognised in our Constitution. They are then cultivated, they have structures and if there's going to be any alteration whatsoever, there are democratic processes rooted in the Constitutions of those particular parties that will guide the process," Mudavadi said.