With just months to August polls, Azimio la Umoja, One Kenya Alliance (OKA) and the Kenya Kwanza have been hit with a new ultimatum by the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP).
In the announcement made by the Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu on Thursday, March 1, the three political formations now have until April 9 to submit their coalition agreements.
The ORPP also made a u-turn on an earlier directive given to politicians eyeing elective seats, which barred them from contesting as independent candidates if they failed to secure their party nomination tickets.
Nderitu noted that candidates who fail at their party preliminaries will now have a window of 10 days to register as independent candidates. This is a huge relief to aspirants who are not sure of clinching the ticket during cutthroat party primaries.
Her declaration comes barely a day after OKA principals Gideon Moi (Kanu), Martha Karua (Narc Kenya), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), and Charles Jirongo (United Democratic Party) put off the signing of their coalition agreement.
The OKA principal explained that the inking of the coalition agreement was postponed after the Narc Kenya Party leader requested more time to scrutinize and seek clarification on the grey areas of the document.
"We were to sign our coalition agreement today but we have postponed it to polish certain legal issues. Nevertheless, we are committed to our unity. We shall be letting you know the time we shall sign the agreement," noted the OKA principals.
While the Jubilee Party under the leadership of President Uhuru Kenyatta vowed to work with the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) under the Azimio la Umoja umbrella, the two are yet to declare if their partnership is a coalition. ODM and Jubilee are also yet to declare a formula that they will use during primaries to avert looming sibling rivalry, especially in areas where the two enjoy near 50/50 support.
In addition, the newly-formed Kenya Kwanza, which brought together Deputy President William Ruto's United Democratic Alliance (UDA), Moses Wetangula's Ford Kenya and Musalia Mudavadi's Amani National Congress (ANC) is yet to submit its coalition agreement, with UDA's National Delegates Conference set for March 15.
A back and forth between ANC and UDA politicians on whether or not they had a coalition agreement, threatened to cause a stir within the coalition. However, the parties' top brass have dismissed claims of cracks and looming fallout.
Notably, the ruling by the Supreme Court on the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) will address the issue of whether coalitions will front one presidential candidate as opposed to in previous occasions where each party in the coalition presented its candidate.
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