DELEGATES MUST HAVE VOICE IN PARTY AFFAIRS FOR THE SAKE OF DEMOCRACY!

THE STANDARD
NAIROBI, KENYA
Published on 17/12/2008

Party reform seems to be an elusive goal as political players opt for undemocratic charades ahead of a deadline to ensure all electoral vehicles meet stringent new certification criteria.

The requirements of the Political Parties Act should have been an opportunity for parties to broaden their leadership. Instead, parties are intent on merely meeting the letter of the law while breaching its spirit.

ODM holds a National Delegates Conference today, having ‘resolved’ a wrangle over the deputy party leader’s post by creating two posts to fit the two main contenders. It has also created 30 positions to be shared regionally.

Its informal steering body, the ‘Pentagon’, was yesterday locked in meetings with key MPs negotiating how to share the seats.

PNU, which has its National Delegates Conference on Friday, has also opted for a pre-arranged allocation of key positions to party favourites. The jostling for influence within the party, outside an election process, has already seen much wrangling and at least one high-profile ‘departure’.

INSTITUTIONS

When, as taxpayers, we welcomed the Act and conceded that funding political parties was a necessary part of institution building, we did not want to fund individual fiefdoms and careers. Parties, we argued, should have some semblance of internal democracy. Rewarding key people with positions may prevent splits now, but it does nothing to strenthen parties for the long run.