Court urged to order registrar to dissolve UDA for luring Azimio MPs

The High Court has been urged to order the registrar of political parties to deregister the United Democratic Alliance for illegally poaching members from Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party to increase its numbers and retain power.

This comes as the registrar Ann Nderitu, who has since been gazetted as an Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) commissioner defended UDA claiming that it was free to woe and court members of other political parties, even those elected.

“Essentially, a party is not prohibited from courting members of other political parties. Unless the petitioners illustrate that the recruitment initiatives of UDA fall short of the cited statutory provisions, which they have not, this state of affairs cannot be an affront to multi-party democracy as the Petitioners have tried to paint it,” argued Nderitu.

Lawyer Kibe Mungai in his submissions claimed that the President William Ruto led party had breached the law by having members of Azimio cross over without them seeking re-election.  

He said that despite UDA being sued, it never bothered to respond or defend its position.

For political party discipline, he said, the court ought to bite hard as a lesson for the other parties.

“We are seeking a specific order that this court should order to order the registrar of political parties to deregister the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), for illegally poaching members of the other political parties against the Constitution,” he argued.

Kibe said that political ‘bad manners’ have been encouraged by internal wars in Azimio and its constituent parties.

In his submissions on behalf of Ali Guracha, before High Court Judges Jairus Ngaah, Lawrence Mugambi, and John Chigiti, the lawyer said that the political marriage between President William Ruto and Azimio leader Raila Odinga made political discipline worse.

He argued that they killed multiparty democracy as no leader can be held accountable for advocating for the manifestos of the opposing party, or even hoping from one party to another.

He added that things were worse as Jubilee, which is a constituent party of Azimio Coalition was experiencing internal wars, with unclear leader until Thursday this week when the High Court affirmed former President Uhuru Kenyatta as the party’s Jubilee leader.

Kibe says that the only option for those who defect, but were elected in different coalitions and parties ought to relinquish their positions and face the electorate afresh.

According to him, a classical example of political ‘bad manners’ is the shifting of Isiolo Governor Ali Guyo and his deputy James Lowasa who crossed from Jubilee to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA).

“They cannot promote the agenda of the opposing party without vacating their positions. Multiparty democracy in this nation is under siege. This is from the position that in 2022, the citizens of Kenya went to an election, and all parties seeking power were in various political parties and coalitions. First and second respondents got specific positions of leadership under the umbrellas,” he argued.

He observed that although Azimio was initially opposed to the two crossing over, its leader is quiet about the same nor has Jubilee punished them.

“You can have a defacto one-party state where you are elected in opposition and tomorrow you are in the ruling party. That is not what the Constitution intended. If you were elected in Azimio and Jubilee you remain there for five years,” he argued.

According to him, democracies die because ruling parties are unable to govern by the constitution. He claimed that in Kenya, the major architect of the fall of democracy is UDA.

Guyo and Lowasa’s lawyer Eric Theuri on the other hand opposed the case. He denied that they had crossed over from Jubilee to UDA.

“Our clients have not joined another political party and that is confirmed by the registrar of political parties. This court cannot deal with an abstract question and then deal with our clients,” replied Theuri.

The former Law Society of Kenya president said that the court had no powers to entertain the case as his clients ought to be dealt with within the parties.

According to Theuri, there are adequate mechanisms, other than the court, provided in the Political Parties Act to solve parties disputes.

“Those issues must be dealt with within the structures of the law and the High Court has its place within the structures and it is to hear appeals relating to the membership of a political party,” he said.

He was hard pressed to explain why his client was clinging on the processes provided by Political Parties Act while he maintaining he had not resigned.

The lawyer said that the alternative processes provided by the law were clear adding that there was no evidence to show that he had shifted.

The registrar of political parties on her end further argued that UDA cannot be punished over the sins of party members who left their parties to join it.

“Party members, elected leaders or otherwise, who resign from their sponsoring parties are not a burden to be borne by the parties they join. One, either a party or a party member, be penalized for exercising their freedom as espoused under the political rights provision through Article 38 of the Constitution,” she said.

Although Azimio had been sued, its lawyers did not appear in court on Friday.