• On one hand, there is David Murathe, the vocal vice-chairman who never quite resigned, and secretary-general Raphael Tuju, who is recovering after a serious road accident.
• On the other hand are Soy MP Caleb Kositany, the supposed deputy secretary-general, and Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, among other Ruto allies
Image: OZONE
In the midst of coronavirus pandemic, what has been selling newspapers as well and maybe most effectively are the Jubilee wrangles.
This is the juggernaut that pride itself of 171 MPs, 38 senators out of 67 and more than half the country’s 47 governors.
However, apart from a Parliamentary Group meeting that was last held at State House to agree on the House leadership, there has never been any other major party organ meeting.
If you asked any Jubilee supporter who is their national chairman is, leave alone the local branch one, very few know.
Nelson Dzuya appears to be just a figurehead, and this is demonstrated by the fact that his own party couldn’t secure him a slot at the East African Legislative Assembly, yet it had six out of the nine slots for Kenya.
Further, the party is divided right down the middle with the two factions of Kieleweke allied to party leader Uhuru Kenyatta, the President, and Tangatanga allied to deputy party leader William Ruto, the Deputy President.
On one hand, there is David Murathe, the vocal vice-chairman who never quite resigned, and secretary-general Raphael Tuju, who is recovering after a serious road accident.
On the other hand are Soy MP Caleb Kositany, the supposed deputy secretary-general, and Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, among other Ruto allies.
Such is the state of this dysfunctional party that the only time it has come alive is when there is a by-election, and even then, there are problems.
A case in point is Kibra where Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja promised that Jubliee wouldn’t field a candidate, only for McDonald Mariga to vie.
One would expect that during this Covid-19 crisis, the ruling party would be meeting to coble up a position on how the state should respond to the pandemic.
On the contrary, Kenyans were treated to Twitter and mainstream media wars between the leaders of the Majority in the Senate and the National Assembly.
This was over the dismal role that Parliament has played in providing leadership during this crisis, yet they belong to the same party and faction.
It’s thus important to understand how we ended up here.
The party was launched on September 10, 2016, after winding up 14 other outfits, a masterstroke that was meant to consolidate the political space in the country, towards ideology based rather than tribal-based politics.
However, the first challenge the new party faced was during the primaries when membership recruitment failed, despite a huge campaign for online registration via SMS and the Sh20 plastic membership card that was launched amidst lots of fanfare.
In addition, the primaries meant to happen simultaneously across the country on Friday, April 21, 2017, failed miserably, amidst accusations of bribery, ballot stuffing and favouritism.
The repeat ones that were done from April 25, 2017 failed terribly as well. This is because the party used non-serialised ballot photocopies, lacked a membership register, used delible ink, and lacked a clear way of identifying bona fide election officials.
Voters only needed their national identity cards to vote and there was no clear tallying mechanism.
It was a big sham, to say the least. In fact, many people who went through such a system have since confessed how they were aided with extra ballot papers to stuff the boxes, over and above, transporting the same voters from one polling station to another.
This is the essence of political corruption that explains the quality of leaders that can be produced out of such a shamelessly shambolic process.
For a party that was cobbled up in September to conduct a nationwide internal plebiscite on the basis of universal suffrage is akin to expecting a seven-month baby to sire a child. Further, the subsequent presidential election was also nullified on the basis of irregularities and illegalities.
This was unprecedented and it leads to protests, repeat elections and the consequent mock swearing-in by Raila Odinga and later the handshake that has further dealt a blow to the party and the opposition coalition NASA.
Kenya has had this vicious cycle of coming up with new parties each and every election, thus stunting political maturity and signifying the culture of impunity and lack of political accountability.
This is because such parties and coalitions are disbanded to escape the fulfilment of political pacts. This reeks of dishonesty, fraud and political conmanship, and any leadership produced in such circumstances lacks legitimacy to exercise proper governance since the very foundation is hypocrisy and subterfuge.
It’s for this reason that I have come up with a political parties primaries bill to help govern this rather too important political environment to institutionalise our parties, away from the founders' syndrome.
In the meantime, Jubilee's self-cannibalism continues in quarantine, and its political orphans are left to fend for themselves.
What was the Jubilee 10-point manifesto all about? Does anyone remember?