Why the courts gave Uhuru a lifeline in party leadership

Courts of law have given retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party a lifeline after a protracted fight lasting nearly two years.

A court ruling last week ended the Jubilee Party long long-standing leadership dispute which had threatened to kill the former ruling party.

At the height of the controversy, the two factions rivalled for leadership of the party where on one hand was the former Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni and on the other was East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA) MP Kanini Kega both fighting to be recognized as the bona fide Secretary General.

Kega had teamed up with nominated MP Sabina Chege who purportedly replaced former President Uhuru Kenyatta as the party chairperson and started supporting the Kenya Kwanza government.

Kioni on his part stuck on Uhuru’s side and maintained that Jubilee was a constituent party of the opposition alliance Azimio La Umoja One Kenya under the leadership of Raila Odinga.

Chege-Kega faction also pushed for the expulsion of other Jubilee Party officials including David Murathe and Kagwe Gichohi who served as vice chairman and treasurer respectively through a party meeting held in early February last year.

Violated law

Through a landmark ruling in favour of the Uhuru trio of Murathe, Kioni and Gichohi, High Court Judge Janet Mulwa said that the meeting violated the law and the party’s constitution thus any resolutions passed then were nullified. The three had filed the case after the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal failed to stop their expulsion from the helm of the party.

Justice Mulwa also set aside an earlier ruling by the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal, which validated the move by the Registrar of Political Parties, arguing that the bench misdirected itself and arrived at an erroneous finding.

The Court also noted that the appellants demonstrated sufficient attempts to exhaust the party’s Internal Dispute Resolution mechanisms before moving to Court but the efforts were unsuccessful. “The landmark decision turns the tide against a faction of the Party keen on unnerving the former ruling outfit from the grip of retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition,” the Jubilee Party said in a statement.

Keep State appointments

In another ruling by the Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Mathew Nduma issued a 30-day ultimatum to seven members of the Jubilee National Executive Council to keep their State appointments or retain their positions as Party officials.

They include three deputy party leaders Naomi Shaban, Jimmy Angwenyi, and Peter Mositet. Others are Deputy Secretary General Joshua Kuttuny, National chairperson Nelson Dzuya, deputy organising secretary Rev Mutava Musyimi, and city businessman Joel Kibe.

The seven had been awarded state jobs by President William Ruto in what Jubilee Party insiders viewed as a reward for involvement to cripple the party.

Judge Nduma ruled that if the seven continue to serve as public officers and officials of a political party they are in contravention of the Constitution, Leadership and Integrity Act and Political Parties Act.

“By operation of law, to wit; Article 232 (2) (b) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, section 23 of the Leadership and Integrity Act and Section 12 of the Political Parties Act, the 1st – 7th respondents’ tenure as public officers and officials of the Jubilee Party of Kenya (a political party) is untenable and otherwise unconstitutional and unlawful,” Judge Nduma said.

Last year in April it took the intervention of Uhuru who has maintained a low political profile since handing over power to his successor President Ruto, to stop a chaotic attempt by the Kega-Chege faction to eject Kioni from office after goons suspected to be hired by the duo stormed the party headquarters in Kileleshwa.

Later in December, the breakaway faction would announce that Jubilee had exited the Azimio La Umoja coalition and that the party was now independent with no allegiance to any alliance. 

The court ruling that has restored Uhuru allies at the helm of the Jubilee Party comes at a time when there is a growing mistrust between the Kenya Kwanza alliance and the Mt Kenya region, which is the party’s stronghold.

With the ongoing impeachment motion against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, the Ruto-led United Democratic Alliance (UDA), which replaced Jubilee after the last general election, is facing an imminent fallout with its supporters from the mountain.

Kioni said after the ruling that they hold no grudges against anyone including the breakaway faction, hinting that the party would embark on a popularization campaign throughout the country in a bid to register new members.

In a recent media interview, Gachagua linked his impeachment woes to the lack of a political pact with President Ruto upon which he would advance the interests of the Mt Kenya region in the Kenya Kwanza alliance. “So trusting is Rigathi Gachagua and his people from the Mount Kenya region, that in the whole of this matrix, we are the only people without a written agreement with President William Ruto. We just agreed as gentlemen. We did not even form our own party to bargain with him or to negotiate with him. I have never asked the president for any written document.”