UDA nominations proof of the party's firm control over members

The anticipated United Democratic Alliance (UDA) consensus for the November 27, Malava Constituency by-election has fallen through.

The five UDA aspirants visited State House on Monday last week but failed to give President William Ruto the name of the person who will fly the party's flag, which necessitated Saturday's nominations in which David Ndakwa won.

It’s instructive that while Dr Ruto could have easily had his way on who flies the party's flag, he chose not to interfere despite what is at stake. On the bright side, Ruto’s stance is indicative of internal party democracy that contrasts sharply with last month's chaotic ODM grassroots elections in Kakamega and Busia. Kakamega ended up having two chairmen in Governor Fernandes Barasa and Lugari MP Nabii Nabwera. In Busia, Paul Otuoma's crowning was contested.

The Political Parties Disputes Tribunal has since suspended the Busia County ODM party elections after an aggrieved member filed a petition.

Ruto’s position on the Malava seat is in sync with earlier assurances by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Farouk Kibet, Ruto's personal assistant, during a joint rally where all the aspirants were introduced to the crowd.

The aspirants were given the assurance that the party would not favour any of the candidates, and that party members would make their choice known when the time came. Nevertheless, the duo challenged the aspirants to remain united and hold onto party ideals no matter the outcome of the nomination.

UDA faces a tough challenge from Rigathi Gachagua’s Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) and Eugene Wamalwa's Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Malava after the two opposition  parties failed to agree on fielding a single candidate.

UDA nomination campaigns where it has fielded candidates have been orderly and uneventful. In Kasipul, there have been loud grumbles within ODM about party meddling. The conduct of UDA aspirants and the organisation that has gone into the campaigns point to a party in full control of its affairs.

In April this year, a delegation from UDA paid a week-long visit to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) headquarters in Beijing to learn a trick or two on how the second largest political party in the world has managed to hold together since 1949 under its first leader, Mao Zedong.

CCP favours a Marxist-Leninist ideology, but party leader Xi Jinping appears to have slightly deviated from democratic centralism and concentrated power in his hands. The party leader wields immense power that brooks no challenge. This benign authoritarianism gets things done in China. There are very few hurdles that could put brakes on CCP, which probably accounts for China's meteoric rise.

The takeaway from this is that some situations demand a firm hand for the maintenance of discipline and order. Given the interest and number of hopefuls for the UDA ticket, the party needed a firm hand to organise and coordinate preparations for the by-elections, and one man fit the bill enough for the party's top leadership to put him in charge. He has been everywhere, overseeing things with quiet authority since.

In September 2022, the then Cabinet Secretary of Roads, Kipchumba Murkomen gave an apt description of Farouk at a function in Uasin Gishu. Inter alia, he said, "Farouk Kibet is a different type of a person. He has a responsibility and works very hard. He has no office, his office is where he is. He is the only man who can make everybody, the deputy president, Cabinet secretaries and politicians, behave in an orderly manner."

Farouk has the reputation of a no-nonsense man, deliberate and methodical. The UDA top leadership must have banked on this to give him carte-blanche to lead the charge by holding its soldiers together. Coming from Murkomen, that was high praise, and probably candid.

Career politicians could not be trusted with the demanding task of keeping the aspirants in line. Needless to say, most have a bias for cronyism and nepotism. To have done so in the Malava contest would have seriously jeopardised UDA's chances, yet it must register an emphatic win to make a statement about its influence in Western.