Uhuru, Raila New Coalition Name Revealed

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President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) with ODM leader Raila Odinga (right) at the Jomo Kenyatta International Stadium in Kisumu during the Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1, 2021
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President Uhuru Kenyatta and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader, Raila Odinga, have inched closer to announcing their 2022 pact after the Registrar of Political Parties received coalition names for consideration.

The Registrar of Political Parties confirmed on Friday, October 29, the reservation for two coalitions named Azimio La Umoja and Alliance for Change that was registered by allies of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.

In a letter endorsing the reservation, the Registrar of Political Parties confirmed the reservation of Azimio La Umoja as a coalition name requested by Suna East Member of Parliament, Junet Mohamed.

Junet is also a member of the Jubilee-ODM led coalition building team together with Raphael Tuju, David Murathe and Edwin Sifuna.

Undated image of Suna East Member of Parliament, Junet Mohamed, at a past press briefing.
Undated image of Suna East Member of Parliament, Junet Mohamed, at a past press briefing.
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Junet Mohamed.

“Your application has been considered as required by law and the Azimio La Umoja has been reserved for use as political party coalition name," the Political Parties Registrar, Anne Nderitu, in a letter to Junet Mohammed stated.

Reports also indicated that Uhuru's allies chose Alliance For Change but there could be a legal issue in reserving the name because there is a party named Alliance for Real Change.

However, the Registrar of Political Parties will give direction if the coalition name applied by Jubilee will hold. Notably, the legal issues may be ironed out since the two parties do not have the same name.

“The Registrar may refuse an application for the registration of a political party if the name of the political party, the abbreviation of the name or the symbol that it wishes to use for the purposes of this Act — is an abbreviation of another political party that is registered under this Act or so nearly resembles the name or symbol, or an abbreviation of the name of another political party registered under this Act," the Political Parties Act states.

Jubilee Secretary General, Raphael Tuju, spoke to journalists and stated that the party is engaged in talks with Wiper, ANC and Ford Kenya after its merger with KANU was suspended.

“The only position of Jubilee is that we are engaging with Wiper, ANC and Ford-Kenya in the sense that the vision is to bring the country together. So it’s not exclusive to ODM. It’s just a matter of time and we will be announcing progress," Tuju clarified.

“The only thing is that we don’t want to do it in the public domain and we’re not able to give a minute by minute update,” he continued.

This comes after Jubilee Party National Management Committee and Parliamentary leadership approved a pre-election coalition agreement with the ODM party.

Through a statement released by Tuju, on Tuesday, August 17, the party announced it had formally started engaging with ODM Party in drawing a framework agreement on a pre-election coalition agreement.

ODM leader Raila Odinga shares his birthday cake with President Uhuru Kenyatta at his home in Mombasa on January 7, 2019
ODM leader Raila Odinga shares his birthday cake with President Uhuru Kenyatta at his home in Mombasa on January 7, 2019
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