Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju, on Sunday, April 12, provided an update on party elections amidst the wrangles within the ruling Jubilee Party.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the Sec-Gen explained that the only issue that was delaying party elections was the desegregation of membership to the Ward level.
He went on to explain that the requirement from the Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu, was that party members are identified from their polling stations but most importantly, they needed to be linked to their respective wards in order for her to approve the elections.
Cracks within the ruling party became public news on January 6, 2019, when the vocal vice-chairman David Murathe quit the party, citing the conflict of interest in his bid to block Deputy President William Ruto's 2022 presidential bid.
"I now find that it is no longer tenable to stay on as the party vice-chairman, given that I will have to sit in the same National Executive Council with a man I am taking to court to block from running for president," he told journalists at his Garden Estate home in Nairobi.
However, a year down the line, the Jubilee stalwart has reclaimed his position and informed the public that his resignation letter was never responded to by the party leader, which implied that he was still the vice-chair.
“Anyone doubting whether I’m still the party’s vice-chairman should confirm with the Registrar of Political Parties and will know that I’m still in charge. As at now, the party is intact but in the near future we shall have a new political formation,” he said during an interview with the Daily Nation.
"The President and party leader of the Jubilee Party did not and cannot be party to any fraudulent and illegal changes to officials of our party. This is the work of political rejects, conmen, fraudsters whose party allegiance is already elsewhere. They should give us a break and leave the Jubilee Party alone," he stated on Sunday, April 13.
At the heart of the latest wrangle is a Gazette Notice dated April 6, in which the Registrar of Political Parties announced that the ruling party intended to change members of the National Management Committee (NMC), who would be replaced by; Lucy Nyawira Macharia, Prof. Marete Marangu, Walter Nyambati, Jane Nampaso, and James Waweru.
“I have noted a gazette notice purporting to change the membership of Jubilee party’s NMC. Please note that NMC has never been reconstituted by the party and neither have we convened the National Executive Committee to reconstitute NMC. The intended changes of the NMC membership are, therefore, illegal and fraudulent,” DP Ruto's letter to the Registrar of Political Parties regarding the gazette notice reads in part.
