President William Ruto has issued instructions for the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) to conduct grassroots elections beginning February 2023 in a bid to strengthen his party across the country.
Reports indicated that the move will also be used as a strategy for 14 affiliate parties to fold and merge with UDA in readiness for 2027.
In addition, the president is said to be juggling the day-to-day operations as the Head-of-State while also keeping an eye on the affairs of the party.
"We are in preparations for grassroots polls next year and the president has indicated that he will be operating from the party offices once every month,” a party official told Nation.
UDA Secretary-General, Veronica Maina affirmed the February 2023 planned timeline for the grassroots elections but was cagey in divulging the aim of the exercise.
The party chairman, Johnson Muthama however noted that President Ruto had ordered for the grassroots elections in a bid to formulate a strategy for the 2027 General Election.
“The party leader told me that we need to conduct elections as soon as possible and that means that we will have them at the beginning of the new year,” Muthama stated.
Amani National Congress (ANC) Secretary General, Simon Gikuru however, noted that the alliance's priority ought to be service delivery to Kenyans.
“I am not aware of any merger plans. We will continue to operate as partner parties under Kenya Kwanza, People just voted the other day. What is of priority at the moment is to deliver the promises that we made to the people. We had a clear pre-election agreement that the President has since honoured in his appointments," Gikuru stated.
The news came as Muthama had initially affirmed that UDA would not force any affiliate party under the Kenya Kwanza regime to dissolve.
"As far as we are concerned in the UDA party, especially in the leadership, we do not want to coerce anybody to dissolve his/her political party. What we are saying is, God willing, come 2027, we want to go to the election as a political party known as UDA so our elections will be about the party," he previously stated.
Kenya Kwanza since pre and post-elections pacts with a number of political, to bolster Ruto's numerical strength. It remains to be seen if key parties, within Ruto's camp, including Musalia Mudavadi's ANC and Moses Wetangula's Ford Kenya will dissolve.
