NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 18 – Young turks in the ruling Jubilee party are tired with the old guard.
The youthful leaders under the umbrella of Jubilee Party Central Kenya Caucus have now called for an overhaul of the party leadership to incorporate new young faces as part a rebranding strategy ahead of next year’s elections.
The caucus led by Kieni MP Kanini Kega held a meeting on Wednesday and resolved that the current leadership should be replaced with youthful ones to drive grassroots campaigns.
“In this regard we have agreed to clean up our grassroots party leadership by replacing those that have betrayed the course and abandoned ship with others loyal to the party and the party leaders,” Kega said without giving names of those targetted.
The cleaning exercise that primarily targets its local structures is to be completed by August 30, 2022.
The caucus maintain that the “fresh, vibrant, youthful and persuasive” leaders will be crucial in undertaking mobilization meetings across the central Kenya region where the party’s popularity appears to be fading away in recent months.
“It would be foolhardy to ignore the recent developments in the party that have cost Jubilee the vibrancy it once had,” the caucus said in reference to the loses that the party has suffered in recent by-elections including in the Kiambaa by-election where it lost to the United Democratic Alliance Party (UDA) that is associated with Deputy President William Ruto.
To restore the party’s lost glory, the leaders said they to hold a series of grassroots meetings in Nyeri, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Nakuru, Laikipia, Kiambu and Nyandarua counties where they are also set to open seven offices.
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Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege noted that the new crop of leaders will be instrumental in acting as a link between the party and its members who feel neglected.
“We are the elected leaders and we cannot wait for people who are in offices to make decisions on our behalf but when I go to the ground, they are the ones who receive the bashing. So, we are taking responsibility and we are not going to wait for anyone and we cannot sit and watch our party die,” she said.
The leaders who have in the past accused the current party leadership of failing them said the new team will be critical in building new alliances ahead of the polls.
“That we cover each ward and constituency within the seven counties with coordinators to consolidate party activities within their mandated areas and also ensure that the party leadership reflects the energy of the youth and the dynamism of the women,” they said.
The top organ of the Jubilee Party on Tuesday sanctioned a pre-coalition agreement with ODM Party in what will see both parties produce a joint candidate in the presidential race.
The announcement was made by Jubilee party Secretary General Raphael Tuju on Tuesday morning following a meeting of the National Management Committee (NMC) at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi.
“Following various high-level consultations within the Jubilee Party that culminated in a joint NMC and Parliamentary leadership meeting, the NMC granted permission to the party secretariat to formally engage with the ODM party in drawing a framework agreement on a pre-election coalition agreement,” Tuju said.
The development is part of President Kenyatta and Odinga’s March 2018 handshake whom he supports to be his successor.
Tuju said that the party will formally write to its coalition partners KANU and Wiper Party with whom they’ve signed a memorandum of cooperation to seek their engagement on the same.
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“The SG was authorized to inform the two parties about this decision and to inform them of the policy of the JP to keep the doors open for engagements premised on the spirit of fostering national cohesion within a context of the mutual respect in our diversity,” he said.
