UDA Chairman Johnson Muthama has declared that the party leader, president-elect William Ruto will adopt the style of Tanzania’s ruling party - Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
Speaking on Sunday, September 11, Muthama explained that the plan is to hand over the powers of the party to the people, who will have a say in the running of the party.
Consequently, the powers given to the UDA secretariat will be trimmed to avoid individuals making decisions guided by their individual interests.
"We want the people on the grassroots to defend this party and proclaim its ownership, not a few gust at the top speaking about the party and carrying it in their own pockets.
"They will drop it when they want and pull it back whenever they please. No!" Muthama elaborated.
The former Machakos Senator maintained that the hands-on approach would help to hold the party leadership accountable and grow a large and loyal fanbase.
He pointed out that KANU, which was the ruling party in the country for nearly six decades had attempted to borrow a leaf from CCM but failed because its top guns declined to relinquish their power to the people.
"KANU tried to do that but the push and the sealing of issues on the ground was not done in a massive way because the people at the top were still holding it from the top," he expounded.
CCM has enjoyed a massive and loyal support from the main land and Zanzibar, winning the last nine General Elections in Tanzania dating back to 1980 and has been in power for 42 years.
It won all polls by garnering more than 50 per cent with the lowest being in 2015, when the late John Pombe Magufuli bagged 58.46 per cent of the votes.
Magufuli, however, secured 84.4 per cent in the subsequent election in 2020. Notably, the highest percentile of votes secured by the party in an election was recorded in 1990 when incumbent Ali Hassan Mwinyi secured 97.78 per cent of the vote.
UDA's Ruto became the first ever deputy president to succeed a sitting president and on the first attempt at the country's top seat.
In in 1978, the late Daniel Arap Moi took over after Kenya's founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta died. Moi would rule the country for 24 years, until 2002, when the opposition ganged up against his iron-fist rule.
