The United Democratic Alliance Party (UDA) on Friday, May 3, resolved to make changes to its leadership structure.
In the new resolutions adopted during a meeting chaired by President William Ruto at State House, UDA will now have two assistant Deputy Party Leaders.
The duo, who will be elected during the ongoing party primaries, will deputise Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
"UDA Party Leader President William Samoei Ruto chaired the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting where a raft of decisions were agreed.
"Among other things, the meeting agreed and approved an amendment to the UDA Party Constitution creating one position of the Deputy Party Leader and creating two offices of Assistant Deputy Party Leaders," read a statement by Secretary-General Cleophas Malala.
According to the party, the changes were made to align the structure with the goals of the ruling party.
Notably, the new structure was adopted as the party dropped proposals to create two more positions for the Deputy Party Leader.
"This, NEC said was to align the Party’s structural leadership with the national governance structure. The constitution initially created three positions of Deputy Party Leader," Malala stated.
Should the party have pushed on with the creation of two Deputy Party Leaders, Gachagua would have lost some political grip in the ruling party.
The push to expand Gachagua's position also saw a push and pull among allies of the DP who opined that the move was aimed at taming Gachagua.
On the other hand, the proposals for the expansion of Gachagua's position in the party were also made at a time when Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula were being pushed to fold their parties and join UDA.
Ruto's party has been conducting party primaries in recent weeks with the national party scheduled for the upcoming weeks.
