In the pluralist theory of democracy, society is considered to be an assembly of numerous entities competing to promote their own interests through their influence on political policymaking. Such entities may include interest groups, pressure groups and political parties.
One of the tenets of a pluralistic democratic society is the presence of multiple parties competing for power. Political parties are seen as vehicles politicians use to gain power.
In mature democracies, political parties are therefore centres for political representation, interest aggregation and articulation, and voter education.
But how effective are the political parties in maturing democracies such as Kenya? How many political parties do we need for a well-functioning, pluralistic democracy?
One would argue that we need as many political parties as there are interests. Today's interests for the majority of Kenyans are the reduction of the cost of living, provision of employment, protection from absolute poverty, and provision of a conducive environment for enterprise development.
A serious political party with stable and enduring structures should be able to aggregate, package and articulate such interests and formulate a manifesto that attracts popular support.
Instead of our political parties growing from genuine popular interests, they are formed primarily in response to the elite interests which are often packaged and presented to the electorate as regional or communal interests.
This has resulted in the formation of numerous but weak and ineffective political parties most of which perform poorly during general elections.
This has inevitably led to a coalition-building culture that has characterised our political competition from the time that Kanu was dislodged from power in 2002. Political parties enter into pre-election coalitions with the hope of capturing power or post-election coalitions hoping to share power with the ruling party.
But because such coalitions are often built on quicksand, they crumble after every general election. Whereas those that lose elections fall almost immediately as constituent parties jostle for government positions, those that form government tend to disintegrate towards the end of the regime as the elite seek new partners having "eaten enough" during the life of the outgoing regime.
For example, the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) that removed Kanu from power in 2002 disintegrated when the elites could not agree on power sharing.
The Party of National Unity (PNU) was born in 2007 after the disintegration of Narc but it disintegrated after President Mwai Kibaki served his second term and in its place came the Jubilee Alliance Party that brought together The National Alliance and the United Republican Party for the 2013 election. These later merged to form the Jubilee Party that President Uhuru Kenyatta used for his second term's reelection in 2017.
In the run-up to the 2022 general election, the Jubilee Party literally collapsed as then Deputy President William Ruto formed his own United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party. He entered into a pre-election coalition with Ford Kenya and Amani National Congress (ANC) among other 'village' parties to form the Kenya Kwanza Alliance that won the election.
On the opposition side we have had the Coalition for Restoration of Democracy (Cord) that was formed to contest in the 2013 general election. It collapsed before the 2017 general election.
The National Supper Alliance (Nasa) was formed to contest in the 2017 general election but it also disintegrated after the electoral loss to Jubilee Party.
The 2022 general election saw the formation of the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Alliance (OKA), which lost to Kenya Kwanza.
It is therefore not hard to predict that by the time we get to the 2027 general election, both Kenya Kwanza and Azimio alliances will have disintegrated. The signs of their disintegration are already there, with the dominant party (UDA) in Kenya Kwanza calling for the dissolution of its fringe partner parties.
Instead of forming, deforming and reforming coalitions before and after every general election, we should amalgamate all the small briefcase parties into two or three giant political parties that have a true national face. They should be strong and effective enough to drive our democratic maturity and thrive in this maturing democracy.
That is why UDA's call for the dissolution of Kenya Kwanza's constituent parties is a welcome move. Azimio coalition should equally follow the same route and parties that do not want to be part of either of the two can form a third political party.
However, the resultant giant parties must endeavour to cultivate genuine internal democracy, have clear and distinct ideologies, and anchor themselves on strong structures and organs that outlive party leaders.
Communication expert and political analyst. [email protected]
