Gideon Moi was elected un-opposed to be KANU's interim chairman/FILE
Moi was elected un-opposed to lead the country’s independence party at a Special National Delegates Conference (NDC) which was held at the Kasarani Sports Complex.
He immediately called for rival factions to come together to unify the party.
“Now is the time for us to be united for a purpose; now is the time for to reconcile our differences, let us forget what is behind and strive for what is ahead. There will be time for us to agree on our manifesto, leaders, party officials and representatives,” the son of former president Daniel arap Moi said.
Party Secretary General Nick Salat said KANU will hold its elections in another two months.
“Thanks you for passing these resolutions… I want to add that we will be holding elections from the grassroots all the way to the National Executive Council (NEC) in two months time. And in three months time we will be back here to ratify and set in stone your wishes,” Salat told the delegates.
On Friday, he said the party would forge ahead without chairman Uhuru Kenyatta who on Thursday gave his strongest indication yet of his intention to quit the party.
Kenyatta said he had called the NDC twice but called it off because of sideshows instigated by Salat, who he accused of being an obstacle to the process of compliance to the Political Party’s Act. He said he did not wish to contest any party office in future.
All KANU National Executive Committee (NEC) members, party MPs and branch chairmen attended Saturday’s meeting.
Salat said Kenyatta had been invited to the meeting but he chose to stay away.
“You see, there is a chair there for one person who we invited. We are all brothers… we harbour no hard feelings and we will welcome him back with open arms if he chooses to come back to our home,” he told delegates.
In the resolutions read by Salat, he was mandated to submit KANU’s application for full registration to the Registrar of Political Parties in the coming week.
The conference also adopted a new constitution that aims at restructuring the management of the party. The new KANU constitution curtails the powers of the chairman and transfers most of the mandate to the secretary general and the party organs.
The new chairman will not have the powers to order fresh elections or to appoint a committee to run the affairs of party organs where necessary.
In the new KANU constitution, the secretary general will head the secretariat, convene a NEC meeting which will have powers to order an NDC or National Governing Council (NGC).
Earlier, there was a bid by a delegate from Nairobi to block the adoption of the constitution but it failed after delegates ignored his plea.
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