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Salat says the role of party chairman Uhuru Kenyatta to convene NEC and NDC had been overtaken by events/FILE

Kenya

No turning back on Saturday KANU meeting – Salat

Salat says the role of party chairman Uhuru Kenyatta to convene NEC and NDC had been overtaken by events/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 11 – KANU Secretary General Nick Salat maintains that he acted within the party constitution when he convened both the National Executive Council (NEC) and the National Delegates Conference (NDC).

He was categorical that the party did not have an option with the fast approaching deadline for registration of political parties, than to fall back on the emergency clauses in order to comply with the law.

Salat said that the role of the party chairman Uhuru Kenyatta to convene the NEC and the NDC had been overtaken by events as the April 30 deadline for compliance approaches.

“The time that we had left to comply with the political Parties Act does not favour anyone and the way forward was to invoke appropriate clauses. We then invoked clause 13(2) c which clearly gives the party NEC mandate to take charge of the party’s matters in an emergency,” he stated.

Article 13(2) c of KANU’s Constitution requires that NEC meets at least once every three months in the event of an emergency, that NEC shall assume full responsibility for the party and shall report to the National Governing Council and the National Delegates Conference.

Salat has insisted that the agenda of the national Delegates Conference which is scheduled for Saturday is to discus and ratify the party’s proposed new constitution to align it to the country’s Constitution.

Salat maintains that KANU will not be deregistered as it has already complied with many of the requirements of the Political Parties Act and that it will present its documents to the registrar after the NDC.

He said: “I am pleased with the progress that NEC has made ever since it took over. We have registered members and complied in 29 counties and are looking forward to many more than the minimum prescribed in law.”

KANU’s National Executive Council resolved at the end of March to take charge of the process of complying with the Political Parties Act, following Kenyatta’s third postponement of the NDC.

Salat said that there was nothing wrong with reducing powers previously vested in the party chairman as they were merely aligning the party’s constitution to the national one.

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Among the powers insiders say have been taken away from the chairman include those to convene a NEC meetings and the NDC or National Governing Council.

“If the constitution we passed took away some of the powers of the president there is nothing sinister about reducing the powers of the (party) chairman. We want organs of the party to have say in the party,” he explained adding that vesting so much power in the chairman had almost ruined the party.

The amendments to the Constitution first came up in 2011 following the party’s first NEC meeting in four years held in Naivasha which Kenyatta and his party deputy Gideon Moi attended.

Acting political parties’ registrar Lucy Ndung’u when asked about the matter said that it was up to the party to use its mechanisms to solve its issues.

“Parties have their own internal ways of addressing such, if it is not possible then they head to the political parties tribunal. It’s not for the registrar to solve disputes between parties or party members,” she said.

Sources close to Kenyatta intimated that he was unlikely to attend the Special NDC at Kasarani which he did not sanction as chairman.

Three weeks ago, Kenyatta told a meeting of the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru Association in Limuru that he wanted o be given a month to decide which party he will use in the next general election.

Meanwhile, the registrar on Wednesday received party membership register, constitution and nomination rules from Ford Kenya amidst complaints of its members being poached by other parties.

Party chairman John Munyes alleged that parties that had previously not even set foot in Turkana already had more members than those established in the region.

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Party leader Moses Wetangula urged the registrar to act firm on all those parties that are found to have used unconventional means to register members.

Also received on Wednesday were lists from Ford people led by its chairman Henry Obwocha who said that the party will weigh options between fielding a presidential candidate and forming a coalition with other parties.

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