UDA-ANC merger talks spark storm, succession politics within ruling Kenya Kwanza administration

The Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress (ANC) and ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party merger talks held at State House yesterday evening have sparked a storm within the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition with political undertones linking the move to 2027 general elections game plan and 2032 succession political matrix.

Yesterday, Prime Cabinet Secretary and Minister for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi endorsed the move for merge.

Mudavadi noted that it would not be practical to field candidates against the president.

“It is President Ruto who gazetted me as the Prime Cabinet Secretary. It would therefore be in bad taste for me to field candidates in ANC. It would be a serious conflict of interest, and so after wide consultation I assure you the President that you are in safe hands.” Mudavadi said.

“We will be straining to run two similar parties. There is absolutely no reason for us to run two parallel parties that have the same thinking, they have the same mind and the same formation and the same orientation. So it is natural, let us see how we bring these parties together in a merger so that our secretariats work as one.” President Ruto noted.

The announcement of the merger comes amid signs of frosty relations between Ruto and Gachagua, with the former’s allies heightening attacks on the latter.

Some contend that the president is consolidating the Western region as a potential vote bloc to marshall a winning political game plan for his 2027 re-election bid.

While Gachagua has been crisscrossing Mt Kenya calling for unity of purpose through his one man, one vote, one-shilling mantra, his critics, including the President himself have accused him of balkanising the country along tribal lines.

Against the heightened attacks on him, the DP has pointed fingers at some close allies of the President, whom he claims are out to dislodge him from the position ahead of 2027.

Though the name of the new joint political outfit was not immediately released, Mudavadi said the process, that is likely to widen the rift between President Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua, is at the tail end and only awaiting “legal mechanisms.”

Sources indicate that some forces within the Kenya Kwanza are pushing for the replacement of Gachagua with Mudavdi as President Ruto’s running mate in 2027 after the amalgamation of the two parties.

The ceremony to announce the move was made at Nairobi’s State House in the absence of Gachagua, who was in South Africa to represent Ruto at the swearing in ceremony of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In the proposed arrangement, both parties are expected to fuse and form a new outfit whose name and hierarchy remains to be determined.

Mudavadi has urged the ANC membership to embrace the idea of being part of a bigger political formation arguing that the merger was a better-informed decision.

ANC party leader and Lamu Governor Issa Timamy backed the merger describing it as an idea whose time had come.

To consolidate their role in democracy, Ruto said political parties must cease being mere election vehicles and become the rallying point for national cohesion and transformation.

“If anyone doubts whether this is the right decision I want to tell you that it is the right decision because we will have a stronger party and more united Kenya.” He said.

The ANC was one of over ten parties that supported the formation of the Kenya Kwanza government led by President Ruto in the 2022 General Election.

Before withdrawing his bid, Mudavadi was a presidential contender in the election, ultimately choosing to back President Ruto.