Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, in a memoir, divulged how President William Ruto tricked former President Uhuru Kenyatta into creating the United Democratic Alliance - UDA.
The political chess began in Uhuru’s second term starting in 2017 when Uhuru signalled that Ruto was not his preferred successor.
“As a first step, we needed to secure a political party to make sure we had a vehicle for Ruto to use as he sought to be elected the fifth President of Kenya on 9 August 2022. Jubilee had been captured by the Cabal.
“If we put all our hopes on it, it was likely that we would be disappointed at the last minute,” he stated in his book, For The Record.
Additionally, they faced the risk of being kicked out of the Jubilee Party if they started a new party during their term in Parliament.
“The week before I was fired, Ruto's inner circle tested the waters claiming that there was Jubilee Asili, the authentic Jubilee, and even branded some office and had Ruto open it. The slogan changed slightly from "Tuko Pamoja" used by Jubilee to "Sote Pamoja". The Cabal, now in charge of the shell that remained as Jubilee Party, was apoplectic.
“As expected, it quickly rushed to the Registrar of Political Parties to block the registration of the new party. It was a diversion, and they fell into the trap. As they focused on making sure no new party was registered, we quietly worked to get our house in order,” he noted.
As Uhuru’s team focused on sealing the possibility of Ruto opening a new party, they came up with a plan to rebrand an existing party that was also a member of the Jubilee coalition.
“We activated the real option. We had a party that had signed a coalition agreement with the Jubilee Party prior to the 2017 elections. It was called the Party of Development and Reforms (PDR). The party was strategic. It wanted to reap from the fallout within the Jubilee Party arising from the grand merger. It had got some leaders in pastoralist counties elected, including Fatuma Dullo, the senator for Isiolo County.
Ruto and his team rebranded PDR to United Democratic Alliance (UDA). This way, they had a new party that was a constituent party of the Jubilee Party, thus, they could not be harassed for abandoning Jubilee.
“We quietly worked with the leadership of PDR, changed the name to United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and created a symbol of a wheelbarrow, got the yellow and green colours approved, and then come January 2021, once the Registrar of Political Parties had accepted the changes, we went public.
“UDA was a coalition partner of Jubilee Party. The members could not be sanctioned for working with a coalition partner. Jubilee could not break the coalition agreement without losing the numbers it desperately needed in the House. Checkmate,” revealed Duale.
Nonetheless, he recorded that Jubilee tried to crack the whip on Ruto by going after his allies.
However, they could not kick them out of Jubilee even as UDA grew in numbers.
Duale served as Majority Leader in the National Assembly between 2013 and 2020 before he we was axed for working with Ruto towards 2022 State House race.
'For The Record' is a 361-page tome by Defence CS Aden Duale. It details his political journey, including winning seats as a member of parliament using four different political parties. It can be bought online through Nuria Store at Ksh3,000.
