Recently when a section of legislators from Mt Kenya region convened a parley in Nairobi where they reportedly endorsed Deputy Prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta as their community and region’s presidential flag bearer, they were in agreement on all, save for one issue: which political party ticket Uhuru should run for the country’s top political office. 

In Kenya, the choice of one’s political party is crucial in an election. Political parties are necessary for the process of institutionalising and sustaining democracy. In fact, developing political parties is one of the basic challenges facing Kenya’s multiparty democracy.

Uhuru is in parliament courtesy of KANU. Willam Ruto and his lieutenants in ODM have broken ranks with Prime Minister Raila Odinga. In both cases, a section of KANU and ODM members have moved to court challenging the conduct of Ruto, his allies and Uhuru as members of the respective political parties.

Political parties have become vehicles to attain political office with individuals owing no allegiance to them. There is need, therefore, for members of political parties in Kenya to understand the meaning of a party. Many problems within political parties seem to arise because individuals who form them have not discussed and come to a consensus on the meaning of a party in general and their individual parties in particular. Even after the introduction of the new legislation governing political parties, confusion, indiscipline and wrangling is still rampant in these outfits.

A party is a group of people who are united by a common ideology, vision, discipline, moral values and tactics and strategies for their common struggle and vision. The ideology of the party is summarised in the party manifesto while the party discipline and system of governance is defined in the constitution. The code of conduct summarises the moral values that help to bind party members together in their common struggle to change society for the better and in line with their philosophy as a party.

A political party cannot be a political party without a manifesto. It will remain a party without a stand and focus and react to events initiated by others without being able to set its own agenda. Many registered political parties in Kenya remain without manifestos. Some manifestos are really not party manifestos because they were written by a few individuals – and sometimes foreigners or donors – and are never studied, discussed, comprehended and imbued by the vast majority of the members, including the leadership.

The basic elements that define political parties are lacking in Kenyan political parties that tend to be created, dominated and sustained by powerful personalities rather than informed and convinced members and become alive only when national elections are announced.

Although the leadership of all political parties is composed of members from the diverse ethnic groups of the country, they are still distinguished not by ideologies but by personalities who lead them and their ethnic base. Hitherto, political parties in Kenya hardly distinguish between their members and their voters, between the party and the masses who identify with it, between holders of party cards and actual members of the party.

As currently experienced in ODM and KANU, lack of appreciation of the meaning of the party and commitment to the party produces lack of party spirit among political parties in the country. This has caused despondency, inertia, anarchy, opportunism and retrogressive tendencies identified with the political parties that include tribalism and even nepotism.

Egoism, especially among the leaders, is one of the greatest problems that hinder the progress of political parties in the country. Party leaders or members address meetings, hold press conferences and generally do things for self-aggrandisement rather than for promoting their parties.

Many of the leaders of political parties are insecure in their relationship to one another because they are motivated by intrigues, narrow and parochial interests. Before the new constitutional dispensation which bars officials in political parties from holding public offices, they feared that if others in the party rose in the public’s esteem in one way or the other, then their future party and public positions would be undermined. So they resorted to tribal allegiances, undermining and isolating others while creating sycophancy.

Many times, party leaders readily contributed thousands or even hundreds of thousands of shillings at harambees where people could notice them doing so. But they hardly donated anything to help run their party secretariats that more often than not, are and were, crippled by lack of funds. This is, because to them, the party is nothing other than a vehicle for pursuing the road to a parliamentary, governorship, senatorial seat or the presidency.

In fact, many leaders of political parties in Kenya would have nothing to do with their parties if they could not use them for personal gain. That is why political leaders, parliamentarians included, keep on changing parties. With lack of ideological beliefs, opportunism is the order of the day among the political class in Kenya.

 A glaring case was that of Uhuru Kenyatta, then the official leader in parliament in 2007, ditching the opposing and rallying support for Mwai Kibaki in the run-up to that year’s general election.  Having declared his interest in the Presidency, Uhuru appears once again in a dilemma on which political party to run in the 2012 elections.

With lack of principled and dependable leadership, anarchy is part and parcel of the life of political parties and individual politicians in the country. This hinders the growth of the political parties and negates on overall democratic growth. Many cases abound where members refuse to respect or recognise their leaders or party organs, particularly when these are against their tribal chiefs or the personalities they follow.

At other times, members of the party choose the press to abuse or communicate with their party organs or leadership. In-fighting, intrigues, chaos at party meetings, opportunism and betrayal are all manifestations of anarchy that are reported every day. Anarchy is encouraged by the situation where the party is in-active, alienated from its members, the masses and reality on the ground as Kenyan political parties have tended to be.

Lack of comprehensive policies, effective leadership, internal democracy and a forum that can be utilised by members to convey their views or criticisms to higher party organs breeds anarchy. Under such circumstances, individual members try to take individual initiatives unknown to the party organs albeit, many times, with good intentions of building up the party.

For development of democracy in the country, real political parties based on defined ideologies that expound internal democracy are as necessary as the new constitution and legislation regulating conduct of political parties. The current political parties will transform themselves into real political parties if they address, among others, membership needs, aspirations and strict adherence to the legislation governing operations of political parties.  Kenyans have to be vigilant and struggle to defend their democratic gains while striving for a better society.

By Kasembeli Albert .

The author is a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.