Ford People dissolves, joins Jubilee with promise to secure victory

Ford People party leaders from Gusii region have finally folded their party to join Jubilee Party.

Party chair Albert Nyaundi said the community would overwhelmingly back the Jubilee Party during the next General Election.

“This is a collective decision which has been fully backed by the party and community leaders across the divide and it will further aid cement unity among our people,” Mr Nyaundi told reporters after a daylong meeting at Sameta Lodge, Ogembo town.

Eleven other parties are expected to break up by September 8th and join the Jubilee Party.

In notices to the Registrar of Political Parties, the parties have said that they will be wound up on September 9 at the Safaricom Kasarani Stadium and Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi.

Members of the Party of National Unity (PNU) which was used by retired President Mwai Kibaki’s to clinch victory during the 2007 elections are yet to agree on the merger.

The Ford People meeting in Kisii was attended by, among others, the county’s deputy Governor Joash Maangi, a Jubilee-leaning ODM member, and also the party’s county organising secretary, MPs Zebedeo Opore (Bonchari), Stephen Manoti (Bobasi), Ward Reps and several party officials from the two counties.

Former Commission for the Implementation of Constitution chairman Mr Charles Nyachae also attended the meeting and endorsed the party’s move.

Mr Nyaundi said the folding of the party was a foregone conclusion and there would be no turning back adding that delegates had already blessed the decision.

FORMAL DISSOLUTION

Meanwhile, nine political parties in Mombasa on Sunday announced their formal dissolution to join Jubilee and called on President Uhuru Kenyatta who is set to visit the area any time to give them a hearing.

The meeting dubbed “UhuRuto Tena Power 2017” in collaboration with the Mombasa Summit was attended by members of Ford People, The National Alliance, Chama Cha Uzalendo, Republican Congress Party, New Ford-Kenya, Party of National Union and Alliance National Congress, among others.

TNA coast coordinator Farid Mohamed shed tears when he narrated to the crowd how he has all along helped the party and President Kenyatta’s election in 2013 but received no thanks.

“I used my Hisham buses to transport people to Nairobi, other vehicles and personal money but what did I get? I was not recognised, shut out and even denied jobs. I was kicked out,” he said.

He said that division within the ruling coalition posed a major challenge as factions loyal to various leaders had emerged.

Republican Congress Party national Secretary General Ibrahim Babangida said coast communities should liberate themselves by joining the ruling party so as to tap benefits.

CCU official Maur Bwanamaka said one of the resolutions from the meeting was that nominations should be determined by party delegates.

PURSUE COAST AGENDA

“We have suggested that each of the dissolved parties produce 20 delegates who should then get short-listed candidates by the county election boards. From here we should endorse the most popular candidate the electoral college way”, he said.

PNU Mvita sub-county coordinator Mwajuma Rajab decried marginalisation of government supporters and asked administrators to make sure that they meet with the Head of State during his coast tour.

New Ford-Kenya chairman Abdilahi Dunga said the parties had decided to merge with Jubilee because the government had shown interest in service delivery as opposed to the opposition.

But Pwani University don Prof. Halimu Shauri cautioned the parties against joining the coalition blindly urging them to continue pushing the coast agenda.

“Let the parties join Jubilee but not forget to pursue the coast agenda that includes landlessness, poverty, low education standards, unemployment and other challenges”, he said.

Prof. Shauri said by joining the Jubilee coalition, “they are making holes in their canoes to enter one ship. What happens if they get nothing in the ship when they have already destroyed their canoes?” he asked.

Reported by Magati Obebo, Nyaboga Kiage and Daniel Nyassy