Former Defence Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa has stepped up his political activities in the wake of a proposal that he officially takes over the leadership of DAP-Kenya.
The party is an offshoot of those who part ways with Ford Kenya after a failed bid to oust now National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang'ula.
With the elevation, Eugene is positioning himself for the bid to control the Western vote bloc, especially Bungoma and Trans Nzoia.
Already, the former CS has earned a spot at the Azimio la Umoja high table and has been a key face in coalition chief Raila Odinga’s events.
In what stands to reinforce his position in the engagements with the opposition side, the party has asked the registrar to initiate the changes.
In the proposal, the party has notified the registrar that former Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi would give way and assume the position of first deputy party leader.
Kakamega Deputy Governor Ayub Savula who was the first deputy party leader has been proposed as the second deputy party leader.
Savula said the changes were agreed upon during a special national executive council meeting.
The proposals to the Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu show he is poised to take over from Bernard Wanjala Masanja.
The latter has since been proposed as the deputy national secretary general, changes which would see Sumeya Bashir dropped from the post.
Luanda MP Dick Maungu has been named as the party’s national organizing secretary, taking over from Osman Noor Abdikadir.
Mohamed Abdikarim Mohamed has been proposed to take the post of secretary county coordination presently held by Martin Mulwale.
Nderitu wants any person with a word on the changes to contact her office within seven days.
“Any person with written submissions concerning the intended change by the political party shall within seven days from the date of this publication, deposit them with the Registrar of Political Parties,” she said in the public notice on the changes.
It has also emerged that apart from the change of party officials, DAP-K has further proposed to change the party’s constitution as well as elections and nomination rules.
In an earlier interview, Eugene said that DAP-Kenya would announce its presidential candidate in June, and conduct national party elections.
The former CS at that time said he had been approached to assume the position of party leader "due to his influence".
He said the party was planning to revamp and position itself as the fifth largest in the country ahead of the 2027 election.
Eugene has been actively in politics for more than 10 years, holding various government positions in the past administrations.
He was Justice minister after Martha Karua, who is now a colleague in Azimio, resigned from the post.
He joined then-President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee team and was named Water CS. He was later moved to the Devolution ministry before assuming the role of the Defence CS.
At the height of the politics around the leadership changes, Wamunyinyi said that transfer of power to Eugene did not mean he had no say in the party.
He said that they moved to name the former CS as leader since there was no position of patron in the DAP-K structure as per the party constitution.
The former Kanduyi MP added that it was Eugene who initiated DAP-K registration plan and did not assume leadership as he was still Defence CS.
“Some people have been fuelling lies that DAP-K has been snatched from me, no it is not that way, I’m still a bonafide DAP-K leader,” Wamunyinyi told his critics then.
CSs are limited to actively taking part in politics.
