Inside President Rutos Kenya Kwanza Plot To 'finish' Railas Azimio Coalition

Last-minute changes to Bomas talks report legislative proposals set for introduction before the Senate have exposed a silent scheme to jolt 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 aimed at doing away with coalition political parties.

This move could have spelt a death knell to Raila Odingas Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party.

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

Trying to pull the rug under Azimios feet, the majority side tabled the altered Bills before the Senate, but it took a last-ditch intervention by the minority side to have a debate on the Bills halted, saving the country from another fierce political storm.

The contentious Bills, part of the bipartisan approach co-sponsored by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwah and his minority counterpart Opiyo Wandayi, included the Political Parties (Amendment) Bill, 2024; the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the Elections Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

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

Senate minority leader Stewart Madzayo argued that had the amendment passed, Azimio would have ceased to exist with all the rights and privileges it enjoys in Parliament and also in law.

Azimio is the only coalition political party in the country and if you do away with the expression, then you are targeting Azimio. If the Bill would have passed as was, Azimio would have been non-existent, he said.

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

Further, the new clauses sought to delete the requirement by the Act for a coalition political party to deposit a coalition agreement with the Registrar of Political Parties before or after elections.

The minority leader said the import of the move was to make null and void the Azimio coalition agreement signed by its affiliate parties and deposited with the Registrar before the 2022 elections.

It is a bit sad for such kinds of mischief in this generation. You do not expect people to do such kinds of things if we are really serious with our democracy, said the Kilifi senator.

Where do you think we would have been if the mischievous changes would have succeeded? We would have burned the country. The person who sneaked in the changes should be arrested to face the law, he added.

On the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the majority side sneaked in a new section after section 38 of the principal Act which provides for the designation of polling stations by the IEBC.

The amendment was to have the electoral commission appoint a place(s) or designate a vehicle(s) or a vessel(s) as a polling station or polling station for each electoral area.

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

The changes went further to delete the words prescribed form from the clause touching on transmission of results after declaration at the polling station.

Section 39(4)(b) of the amended Act, 2016 states that IEBC should electronically transmit results, for purposes of a presidential election, within two hours of the declaration of the results, from a polling station to the constituency tallying centre, national tallying centre, the candidates or their observers and election observers in the prescribed form.