ANC party unveiled a new constitution on August 14 and promised members and supporters of transparency and vibrancy heading into 2022.
Amani Council, the party's top organ under the new constitution, endorsed Musalia Mudavadi for president in the 2022 General Elections.
The party also announced plans to conduct grassroots elections early 2021 to solidify its support base nationwide.
In a speech after the inauguration, Mudavadi promised a grassroots revival for the party nationally.
In an interview with the Star, Mudavadi said ANC has been laying the ground to revitalise its branch network.
“We focused on how members could make decisions from the branch level and that’s why we came up with the Amani Council as the topmost organ with representation from all the counties,” he said.
Mudavadi said the council would enhance the voice of members from the grassroots upwards to the national level, unlike the disbanded National Executive Council.
As party leader, Mudavadi is also the chair of the National Delegates Congress and Amani Council.
Mudavadi said programmes planned for 2020, including grassroots elections, were put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For us, lives come first. We couldn’t engage in normal political activities since the Ministry of Health came up with protocols which had to be adhered to and we obeyed as a party,” he said.
Mudavadi said he will tour Western, Central and Nyanza regions to market his 2022 presidential bid. He met elected and other leaders from across the country as well as professionals at his Musalia Mudavadi Centre in Nairobi for most of 2020.
“My desire and wish to be of service to the Kenyan people as their president in 2022 remains. The decision will fall into the hands of the Kenyan people and to the will of God.”
Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala said the party would recruit more members in 2021 and popularise Mudavadi's 2022 candidature.
“We want to strengthen the party in 2021 as we make Mudavadi a formidable force come 2022,” he said.
Mudavadi said ANC will have an interim secretary-general by early 2021 pending the appointment of a substantive officeholder.
“Then, we will have the national elections board which will roll out programmes for elections within the party,” he said.
Former secretary-general Barrack Muluka resigned from the post on August 12. He said he needed to give the party space to make critical decisions under the new constitution.
Muluka said he felt that he had completed his tasks both to the party and its leader, which included writing Mudavadi’s biography Soaring above the Storms of Passion.
Muluka was appointed ANC secretary-general in November 2017, taking over from nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi.
Days after Muluka's resignation, Eliud Owalo, a former campaign manager for Raila Odinga who ditched ODM in August 2019 for ANC, also left the party.
Owalo said he made the decision to create space within the party and around Mudavadi to enable ANC to strategise without distractions.
Owalo has joined Deputy President William Ruto's camp.
"Based on the foregoing and informed by a contextual analysis of all the probable 2022 presidential candidates, I have, with effect from today, made a deliberate and conscious decision to stand with Kenyans by pursuing my political interests and aspirations within the ambit of the 'hustler' political matrix," he said.
Mudavadi said the visibility of the party has this year been enhanced substantially.
“Nowadays you hear people asking, ‘and what is ANC party saying?’”
He said ANC has faced interruptions by “some of our party members who have been used consistently by outside forces to undermine our progress”.
He said there have been hurdles within the National Super Alliance (Nasa) coalition since the beginning of the year.
“It has not been smooth because of a lot of dishonest approaches within coalition members. Further still, the issue of sharing political party’s funds has not been resolved and this raises a lot of questions as towards which kind of partners you engage with going forward,” he explained.
Deputy party leader Ayub Savula said ANC has been on the frontline calling for interventions to save the economy.
“I don’t think any other political party has been focusing on the threat of a decline of the economy than we have. Our legislators have worked hard to make contributions in the Senate and the National Assembly on this matter. We now have Nambale MP Sakwa Bunyasi’s bill on public debt management,” he said.
“We said some of those things need to be amended and indeed many of those things have been looked into. We need to make sure the referendum is not largely contested. We need to close ranks. Imagine the security that will be needed if it is hotly contested.”
(edited by o. owino)