Aspirants planning to contest for political seats on the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party in 2022 elections would have to meet stringent conditions to get the ticket.
One of them is that they must have been a member of the party for at least two years before elections.
The Saturday Nation has reliably learnt that the National Executive Committee (NEC) in a meeting held yesterday in Nairobi adopted the recommendation from the party’s legal committee.
“The party adopts the recommendations of the standing committee of legal affairs to align its constitution and elections and nominations rules with the constitution of Kenya and applicable national statutes in readiness for next year’s General Election,” reads the NEC resolution that was read by nominated senator Agnes Zani.
A highly placed source that attended the meeting that was chaired by the party leader Raila Odinga said the move is meant to lock out individuals who only come to the party for nomination certificate but show no commitment thereafter.
After the meeting, ODM chairman John Mbadi said they have not changed the laws but have just aligned the party rules with constitution of Kenya.
“We have just basically aligned our nomination rules to the constitution. Nothing much has changed,” Mr Mbadi said. The import of this resolution is that those not in the party at the moment now risk being locked out of using ODM as their political vehicle in 2022 polls. Further, in tightening its rules, NEC also said nomination results will also be declared only in designated places.
“Results of the party’s nomination will only be declared in designated polling stations. You cannot for instance declare Homa Bay County results in Migori or anywhere else,” said the source.
In the meeting, Mr Odinga told the leaders to go to the ground and conduct civil education on the benefits of the BBI. In particular, Mr Odinga told his troops to explain to the people the import of increasing allocation to counties by 35 percent and how each county is set to get an increment in the shareable revenue.
Dr Zani also said the party remains committed to working with Jubilee on matters of BBI since it is aimed at uniting Kenyans.
“To achieve this, we have resolved to work with the ruling Jubilee party and other like-minded political parties to walk this journey together to the end,” Dr Zani said.