Allies of Deputy President William Ruto Monday talked of a plot to frustrate United Democratic Alliance (UDA) members from resigning from the ruling Jubilee as parties prepare for primaries.
They urged the Registrar of Political Parties to ensure resignations, migrations and registrations are seamless to avoid conflicts.
Bomet Central MP Ronald Tonui, Sotik’s Dominic Koskei and Bomet Woman Representative Joyce Korir said some members are finding it difficult to move to other parties after abandoning Jubilee.
Some who resigned have found their membership reinstated.
“The registrar has to address the issues raised by voters and potential UDA members. Their democratic right to association as provided for in the Constitution should not be curtailed,” Mr Tonui said.
Ms Korir and Mr Koskei said most of those who have resigned from Jubilee find it difficult to register as UDA members, with results on e-citizen not coming through to confirm their new political party.
“Whatever it is that makes it difficult to register and confirm the political affiliation of a voter should be addressed urgently as it will create disputes during primaries,” Mr Koskei said.
Uploaded digitally
Bomet county UDA Coordinator, Stephen Mutai, said migration is posing challenges because the registrar prefers to upload new party members digitally.
“About 10 per cent of the population is on e-citizen platform,” he said.
Mr Mutai, who has been recruiting UDA members in the South Rift, said the problem has persisted for months.
“Most voters in rural Kenya do not have e-citizen accounts and should be allowed to register as members of political parties manually. Their details should be accepted and uploaded to the register. It’s everyone’s right to belong to a party of their choice,” Ms Korir said.
Spat over membership
Jubilee and UDA leaders have been involved in a spat over membership.
Top guns in the ruling party say UDA officials stole the Jubilee membership database.
Jubilee says UDA hacked into the database, stole details of more than two million members and then registered them as its followers.
UDA Secretary-General, Veronica Maina, denies the claims.
“Our county, constituency and ward coordinators have documented the process to guarantee the accuracy of the membership,” she said.
She added that Jubilee is in panic because thousands of its members are leaving.
President Uhuru Kenyatta prefers to be succeeded by Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga and not his deputy.
Jubilee Deputy Secretary-General and Cherang’any MP, Joshua Kutuny, said the ruling party has approached the registrar to audit the UDA roll.
“UDA did not build its membership from scratch. They simply lifted a list of Jubilee members and fed it into their system,” he said.
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