Power wars rock UDA grassroots registration
A storm is brewing within the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) pitting incumbents and aspirants eyeing the same seats ahead of the 2022 General Election.
At the centre of the fresh tussle is an alleged scheme to lock out strong aspirants from various seats also being eyed by party’s bigwigs.
According to a source within UDA’s Secretariat, the party associated with Deputy President William Ruto is being driven by sitting lawmakers who are jostling for party positions in order to guarantee their nomination certificates.
The source claimed the MPs have brought their loyalists to be constituency and ward coordinators in order to use them to gain contacts from the public and create a grassroots network with the coordinators being accused of frustrating aspirants in different counties.
Even though the party’s leadership has been assuring members that they will conduct party grassroots elections, according to the source, all indications show that they will appoint party officials who might be people proposed by sitting legislators through boardroom deals using their closeness to the DP and the Party secretariat.
The source claimed most of the current MPs have been frustrating their competitors by making sure the aspirants do not meet and when they attempt, they allegedly use their influence to send police to scuttle the meetings.
“So far, the party secretariat has been crisscrossing the country assuring aspirants that the nominations will be free and fair but that just sounds good on paper; how the party achieves this remains to be a mystery,” said the source.
“I say this because the same players who mismanaged the Jubilee nominations have been imported into UDA and signs are already there that there is nothing new they bring to the table.”
The source cited the schemes to be in high gear in Nairobi County where divisions and infighting have been going on for the last two weeks over the gubernatorial seat with a sitting senator and a businesswoman claimed to be behind the machinations.
The same scenario has also unraveled in Nakuru, Mombasa, Kiambu, and Nyeri Counties with aspirants now mulling decamping to smaller parties as plan B should they be locked out.
“If UDA does not put its house in order, it will suffer the same fate that Jubilee Party and ODM have been suffering. It will just be another vehicle for transporting leaders into office.”