Inside President Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza plot to ‘wipe out’ Raila’s Azimio coalition

Last-minute changes to legislative proposals in the Bomas talks report to be presented to the Senate have exposed a quiet plan to shake up the opposition party.

Nation.africa has established that there was a sinister plot by President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza side to make changes to the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco) report with the aim of removing political parties from the coalition.

This move could have spelled a death sentence for Raila Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party.

The other part of the aborted plan was to change the way elections are conducted and how results are transmitted.

Trying to pull the rug under Azimio’s feet, the majority side presented the amended bills to the Senate, but it took a last-minute intervention by the minority to stop debate on the bills, saving the country. of another fierce political storm.

The controversial bills, part of the bipartisan approach co-sponsored by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah and his minority counterpart Opiyo Wandayi, included the Political Parties (Amendment) Bill, 2024; the Electoral Offenses (Amendment) Bill 2024 and the Electoral Offenses (Amendment) Bill 2024.

The first amendment sought to remove the existence of a coalition political party from the Political Parties (Amendment) Act, 2022 by removing the expression “coalition political party”.

Senate Minority Leader Stewart Madzayo argued that if the amendment had been passed, Azimio would have ceased to exist with all the rights and privileges he enjoys in Parliament and also in law.

“Azimio is the only coalition political party in the country and if you remove the expression, then you are targeting Azimio. If the bill had been passed as it was, Azimio would not have existed,” he said.

To block any resurrection of Azimio, the majority side also attempted to request the removal of several sections of the law relating to the formation, registration, certification and governance of a coalition political party.

In addition, the new clauses sought to eliminate the requirement established by the Law that a coalition political party deposit a coalition agreement with the Registry of Political Parties before or after the elections.

The minority leader said the importance of the move was to nullify and nullify the Azimio coalition agreement signed by its affiliated parties and deposited in the Registry before the 2022 elections.

“It’s a little sad that this kind of mischief is committed in this generation. People are not expected to do that kind of thing if we are really serious about our democracy,” the Kilifi senator said.

“Where do you think we would have been if the mischievous changes had been successful? We would have burned the country. The person who snuck the changes must be arrested to face the law,” she added.

In the Electoral (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the majority side introduced a new section after section 38 of the main law providing for the designation of electoral colleges by the IEBC.

The amendment consisted of the electoral commission designating a place or designating a vehicle or boat as a polling station or polling station for each electoral area.

Section 38A(1)(a) provides that the Commission shall designate a place or place as a polling station or polling station for each electoral area.

The changes went further and removed the words “prescribed form” from the clause relating to the transmission of results after declaration at the polling station.

Section 39(4)(b) of the Amended Act of 2016 provides that the IEBC must electronically transmit the results, for the purposes of a presidential election, within two hours of the declaration of the results, from a polling station to the constituency counting center, national counting center, candidates or their observers and election observers in the prescribed manner.

“When we confronted them (the majority party), they agreed that there were insertions and deletions contrary to what was in the Nadco report,” Madzayo said.

“What we want is for the report to be approved as it is, without sneaking things in. Why do you want to take us back to the streets? The late President Kibaki said that even if you want to manipulate, please use some intelligence,” he added.

Speaker Amason Kingi prompted the withdrawal of the bills in his communication to the House on May 2, to achieve consensus between the two parties before their reintroduction.

The former Kilifi governor said the House Business Committee deliberated on the issue on April 30 before deciding that remedial action should be taken on an urgent basis in line with what was agreed in the Nadco report.

“This being the case, I direct that the three aforementioned bills be discontinued from consideration to facilitate corrective measures,” President Kingi said.

He added: “In this regard, I direct the Office of the Secretary to contact the Senate Majority Leader and the Senate Minority Leader to correct and reissue said bills for introduction in the Senate. ”.

The news came after Senator Madzayo lodged a complaint with President Kingi, expressing concern over the content of the three bills and calling for their immediate withdrawal.

In the April 22 letter, Senator Kilifi said the bills have clauses that are extraneous and/or deviate significantly from the authentic bills emanating from the Nadco report adopted by the two Houses of Parliament.

He further called for cancellation of the call for submission of memorandums on the bills and expeditious publication of the original bills as contained in the Nadco report. Madzayo told The Nation yesterday that he had previously had a conversation with his party leader about the attempt at “monkey business” by the majority side.

But Senate Majority Leader Boni Khalwale said people shouldn’t make too much of what’s happening.

“There is nothing sinister. We should not read anything sinister into what happened,” said the Kakamega senator.