William Ruto and his renegades in the Jubilee Party may not use the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) in 2022. The outfit, which the deputy president has publicly associated himself with was formerly Jubilee secretary general Raphael Tuju’s Party Of Action (POA) before it transformed to Party for Development and Reforms (PDR) which rebranded to UDA.
The revelations come at a time the party’s former chairman Mohamed Noor plans to petition the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) seeking to regain control of the party, saying it was unduly snatched from him by allies of the DP who imposed current Secretary-General Veronica Maina and Johnstone Muthama as the Chairperson.
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Mr. Noor claims, Registrar of Political Parties Ms. Anne Nderitu unlawfully made changes to the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) officials through Gazette Notice No. 1233 dated January 29, 2021, and 2739 published on March 19, 2021, without regard to the party’s constitution and demands the changes rescinded and get reinstated as the bonafide chairman.
However, allies of the DP led by the chairperson Johnstone Muthama read Jubilee Party’s hands in the new barrier threatening William Ruto’s 2022 bid. The former senator attributes the leadership wrangles to the new outfits growing popularity he says is upsetting some quarters.
“Our detractors are the ones using them because they want to reduce our popularity and the speed with which we have taken off. They just want to dirty the party and make it sensitive to Kenyans not to trust it but we believe Kenyans know where we have come from and where we are going and understand what we are selling to them and they will stick with us,” Muthama says.
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The UDA chair says there was no way they could have moved in UDA without having a clear agreement with the officials of the party who were there, and wonders why it has taken months for someone to come out now claiming that the party belongs to them.
”What we know is that this party was PDR, we went into it, became members, and followed the due process to change the name to UDA. I don’t think after the rigorous process we underwent to put our case to acquire the party they should take this direction,” he adds.
