The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) has called off its grass-roots elections, which had been postponed four times since April last year.
Instead, the Deputy President William Ruto led party intends to hold polls following the general election on August 9th.
Despite promising to administer its business differently to correct the wrongs of the current Jubilee party, the UDA appears to be following in the footsteps of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party, which has not held elections simultaneously.
As the campaigns heat up, UDA claims that preparing for general elections since 2016 would be impossible.
“Given the timeframe, and the fact that the August polls are rapidly approaching, we do not believe it is the correct time to hold elections now,” UDA chairman Johnson Muthama said.
“We will now have temporary coordinators who are nominated by party leaders to oversee party activities from voting stations to county levels,” he added.
In each voting station, the UDA has mandated that elected leaders and aspirants appoint two party coordinators.
Fifteen people will be chosen to run the affairs party at the ward level.
Two representatives, a male and a woman, will be chosen by the elected leaders. At the constituency level, the ward teams would elect their chairpersons, according to Muthama.
According to the former Machokos senator, UDA is not concerned about infiltration, which is a common source of concern for parties in grassroots elections, because the process would be closely monitored.
UDA had nominated 47 coordinators to oversee party activities at the county level.
Secretary General Veronica Maina has requested that coordinators who intend to run for elective Instead of holding party elections, the UDA has focused its efforts on the approaching primaries in April, inviting candidates for all six elective seats.
UDA started the process this week, just days after announcing its National Election Board (NEB), with the goal of conducting fair and legitimate nominations ahead of the general election.
Candidates for president will pay Sh1 million, governors will pay Sh500,000, and senators will pay Sh250,000 positions resign “to allow non-aspirants to serve.”
