The Political Parties Tribunal has urged United Democratic Alliance (UDA) MCAs in Nairobi to utilize their Internal Dispute Resolutions Mechanism (IDRM) and settle their leadership disputes.
The tribunal, in dismissing an application from Anthony Karanja Kiragu (MCA Waithaka Ward) and Mark Mugambi (Umoja 1 ward), sided with the UDA party's argument that the two had not exhausted the party’s internal dispute resolution mechanism before bringing the complaint.
The duo had sought the tribunal's intervention to stop the enforcement of UDA's decision to remove them from the party's leadership.
“We will, therefore, down our tools, refrain from making a merit determination on the matter and allow the parties to attempt IDRM through the UDA IDRM systems; and should these fail, we shall, indeed, take up the matter,” the tribunal led by Dr Wildred Mutubwa said.
Kiragu and Mugambi had stated that the IDRM process under the UDA party was either unavailable or compromised warranting the tribunal's intervention.
They stated that their first steps were to attempt to address the matter internally using the laid down procedures but UDA allegedly ignored them and this led to them filing the matter before the Tribunal.
But the tribunal said they have not been shown anything to prove that the UDA party IDRM processes were either non-existent, compromised, or ineffective.
“What we have seen is a clear effort by the party to intervene in this matter, that is, really, a political question,” the Tribunal said.
