TNA Secretary General Onyango Oloo told journalists on Saturday that negotiations with other like-minded parties had not yet materialised into a solid deal/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 11- The National Alliance (TNA) party has announced that it will field candidates in the coming by election, slated for next month, in all three constituencies, Kangema, Ndhiwa and Kajiado North despite current talks with other parties for a possible merger.
TNA Secretary General Onyango Oloo told journalists on Saturday that negotiations with other like-minded parties had not yet materialised into a solid deal.
He noted that although three parties, namely the Alliance Party of Kenya (APK), the Grand National Union (GNU) party and the Party of National Unity (PNU) endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential bid the deal was not binding.
“TNA will be represented by its own candidates. We will field candidates in the wards and constituency levels because our discussions with other parties have not reached a point where we can say we have a coalition or merger,” he noted.
Oloo also announced that the party would pick its by-election candidates on August 15 at the party headquarters.
“We will conduct nominations at our offices next Wednesday,” he said.
Kenyatta, who will seek the top seat on a TNA ticket, is also engaged in talks with Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka, New Ford Kenya’s Eugene Wamalwa and Party of Action’s Raphael Tuju.
“Each of the parties has agreed to assign one person to a technical working team that is going to work on the mechanism of working together,” said Tuju.
However a cross section of APK members has dissociated themselves from the Memorandum of Understanding endorsing Kenyatta saying they were not consulted.
The group, led by Titus Ndundu, also argued that it was wrong for Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi to make the move on their behalf as he was not the party’s head.
“What Kiraitu went ahead and did was a misrepresentation because the national delegates have not been selected and Kiraitu is an interim Chairperson of APK. He has not been selected and he has no authority to represent APK in whatever capacity,” he argued.
Ndundu added that they would go to Court to nullify the MoU as it undermined the party’s democratic systems.
“We will take legal action to make the MoU null and void,” he said.
The group has also accused Kenyatta of propagating tribalism saying he is not a nationalist.
“If he wants to form a coalition he has to talk to Kenyans from all corners of this country; not to pick Amos Kimunya (Transport Minister), Mwangi Kiunjuri (assistant minister Public Roads) and Njeru Githae (Finance Minister) and pretend to have formed a coalition with Kenyans,” he charged.
However the members’ argument is not the official party’s position.
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