The ‘invited’ prefect of the United Democratic Alliance returned home, from China, to a discipline-starved house. He found party functionaries hauling expletives at each other. They were working microphones in ways that appeared richer in the undercurrents than the obvious political vitriol spewed out on public podiums.
Cleophas Malala, aka Omondi, the UDA guest, was away in China for days, studying how the Chinese Communist regime has maintained discipline across party ranks since 1949. He returned to intra-party noises that conceal more than they reveal about the tension in the two-year-old ruling coalition, where UDA is a senior partner.
The prefect’s attempt to restore order, the way he learnt in China, may have been well-intended. But his squabbling party-mates have been quick to remind their temporary prefect of little truths he may have overlooked.
The tone of the prefect’s reprimand to his seniors appeared personalised when he should have been conveying a consensual party line. Perhaps it was the urgency of the message that explains the prefect’s ire.
The oversight is understandable because the prefect returned home fresh and excited. He wanted to enforce what he may have learnt from the Chinese Communist Party.
The party was founded 75 years ago, when Mao Zedong proclaimed the rise of the People’s Republic of China. By last year, the CCP had about 100 million card-holding members. It is the largest political party in the world by membership after India’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
The CCP knows how to silence dissent to keep party members – rank and file – in toe. Malala must have learnt a few tips from this during his foray in China.
On return, he had the chance to show he did not waste the opportunity, calling out senior party members for indiscipline. The invited party leader was sent to Asia to learn the management of the Chinese Communist Party.
Malala called Cabinet secretaries, governors and MPs aligned to the party to order. Moses Kuria, Onesmus Kipchumba Murkomen and Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi took offence, and showed it.
Malala: “Oscar Sudi, your recent conduct undermines UDA party unity and disrespects the leadership you have pledged to serve. Desist with immediate effect or the party will take stern action against you.”
Sudi: “You are an elevated MCA suffering from illusory superiority, thinking you match Raphael Tuju’s calibre.”
Tuju, a former Rarieda MP and minister in the Mwai Kibaki government, was Jubilee coalition secretary general during the Uhuru Kenyatta presidency. Tuju waded through party discord, with a sense of role limitation. He never went beyond his pay grade by asking Cabinet secretaries and MPs to ship out whenever their conduct rattled the coalition.
Tuju, like Malala, also once went to China to learn party management from the Chinese Communist establishment.
Malala’s takeaway on party discipline, however, has rattled some of the owners of his local party. The offended have reminded the boisterous prefect, not just of his guest status in the party, but also of how tenuous his position is in the Kenya Kwanza political establishment.
The guest arrived at UDA, through Amani National Congress, a UDA partner in the Kenya Kwanza coalition. He is supposed to be watching over a house he did not build. His pretentious claim to have the power to whip and ship out ‘authentic’ founders has attracted rage reminders.
The reminders have been personal, and largely cynical, hit below the belt. The former ANC member, now UDA’s acting secretary general, has cause to feel shaken. ‘Smallifying’ references have been made about his party position, history and uncertain future in UDA.
Some of the original party members have let him know – firsthand – that they intend to fry him, and then fly him out of his tenuous party perch.
The acting UDA prefect must now understand, if he hadn’t, that in the minds of some owners of the party, he wasn’t welcome to a position he does not merit. Those owners do not seem to care about the fact that Malala is a presidential guest in UDA.