The woes bedevilling Chama Cha Kazi party of Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, which has been grappling with allegations of shortchanging aspirants, have deepened after its deputy organising secretary quit citing mistrust and poor leadership by the lawmaker who is eying the Kiambu governor seat, in the handling of party affairs.

Peter Muchendu, who is among the founder members of the political outfit, in a letter to the MP and copied to the Registrar of Political Parties boss Ann Nderitu, accused its leadership of unilaterally running the party through decisions that have been punitive to aspirants, 300 of whom have had their political ambitions shattered after they were either denied tickets or asked to withdraw from the races.

The party, without any approval or consultation from the party’s executive committee, Muchendu says, introduced a life membership fee of Ksh200,000 for MCA aspirants and Ksh500,000 for the other seats as a prerequisite for the aspirants to get their nomination certificates.

This, he argues, was a complete turnaround from the very reasons they formed the party.
“It’s a vacation from the principles I believe in and has subsequently locked out over three hundred paid up aspirants who can’t raise this money (life member fees) from getting their nomination certificates. It has also come to my attention that I have been portrayed by the party leader as a con artist to the party’s aspirants, this has tainted my personal character and credibility within the party.

I, therefore, cannot continue to be a member of the very party that has betrayed me, my beliefs and fellow young people whose political careers are about to be crushed,” he said.

According to Muchendu, when he joined Kuria in building CCK, it was because he believed that “finally young people of this nation had gotten a place to call home”, because ” ideas would be the defining factor rather than how much they are worth”, and this motivated him to recruit more young people to join the party.

“As a dedicated member of the party executive committee, I recruited so many of my friends vying for different positions in their respective counties. They went ahead to pay nominations fees and also surrendered all paperwork as advertised by the party’s election board, subsequently, the party presented a list of 350 plus fully paid up aspirants to the registrar of political parties,” Muchendu said in his letter.