However unpalatable this might seem, you just have to hand it to Kanu. The ‘Independence party’ is just a puny shell of its former self but it at least became the first political outfit of significance to successfully stage a national delegates convention during the life of the current Parliament.
It also became the first party to formally unveil its nominee for the 2022 presidential election. Party Leader Gideon Moi is, therefore, a step ahead of all the other putative candidates, including the big guns such as Deputy President William Ruto, who is shifting camp from governing Jubilee Party to UDA, and ‘former’ Opposition leader Raila Odinga of ODM.
The rest of the pack is led by former Vice-Presidents Musalia Mudavadi of ANC and Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper Party), trailed by a long list of declared or presumed aspirants, some of whom don’t even have parties to stand on.
Of course being first off the blocks in the presidential race means nothing in regard to a candidate who, despite his pedigree, famous name and bottomless pockets, would have a great deal of trouble just retaining his Baringo senator seat. But what Mr Moi has at least reminded everyone is that the oldest surviving political party in the country has been exhumed and resuscitated, and will at least be a factor in the general election of next year.
Latent potential
Another significant fact from the show put on at the Bomas of Kenya last week is that Kanu has a lot of latent potential to build as one of the few political parties in the country with long history, established structures and networks countrywide.
In fact one could argue that most of the other outfits in Kenya are not political parties, but merely special-purpose vehicles that die out with every election cycle, or outfits ‘owned’ by one individual.
The other phenomenon that Kanu can exploit to distinguish itself from most of the competition is that it is one of the few parties pushing a national agenda rather than the narrow ethnic pursuits littering the scene today.
Looked at from those perspectives, there are only two genuine, broad-based national political parties still in the game. Kanu is one. The other is ODM, which though also built around a dominant individual does have a solid presence across the country beyond the ethnic bedrock.
This might seem strange but the fact is that the governing Jubilee of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his estranged deputy is in its death throes. Dr Ruto is pulling his followers out to the new SPV formed for the 2022 polls while the Uhuru loyalists who remain in the carcass are scampering to wherever they can find shelter.
Before the then Jubilee coalition captured power in 2013, there were two previous running parties that have now been reduced to rump outfits. President Mwai Kibaki sent Kanu to oblivion in 2002 under umbrella of the national Rainbow Coalition (Narc), which now reposes in the handbag of Kitui governor Charity Ngilu, while an offshoot, Narc Kenya, is similarly controlled by former Gichugu MP Martha Karua and is now pushing a narrow ethnic agenda.
President Kibaki was re-elected in 2007 under the Party of National Unity (PNU) ticket, which also went into disuse as soon as he took office. It is now one of myriad outfits, including his former Democratic Party, now trying to fill the vacuum in central Kenya.
If nothing else, Kanu’s re-emergence should remind us all that solid parties with long-term national goals and vision will always outlive the narrow ethnic and regional outfits, one-man shows and SPV’s.
In the run-up to the 2017 elections this page lauded the formal formation of Jubilee Party from a merger of Mr Kenyatta’s TNA and Dr Ruto’s URP.
Bedrock principles
That did not indicate support for Jubilee, but support for democracy founded on bedrock principles of competition between strong political outfits with competing policies.
By the same principle, Dr Ruto’s efforts to craft a new national party built on a distinctive platform, rather than then mere a temporary alliance of ethnic outfits, is worth recognition. This does not overlook the fact that for the moment, UDA is Dr Ruto and Dr Ruto is UDA, and the overriding agenda is to propel the party ‘owner’ to State House. In the long term, however, a strong united party has better chances of survival than an agglomeration of ethnic outfits.
That Kanu is still alive today and harbouring pretensions to the presidency is testimony to that. BY DAILY NATION