The reality is that our political parties are paper tigers.
They lack coherent ideology, vision or purpose. Their membership is largely
transient with loyalties tied to individuals rather than the party. Hence personality cults support the existence
of the party and the whims of individuals make or break the organization. A
lack of committed membership also means that the parties are generally starved
of funding and few individuals (“the owners”) contribute funds to run
party activities. In turn, the owners feel they have a right to call the shots in the party. In fact
this is the major genesis for favoritism and flawed processes during party
nominations as the owners believe they have earned the right to subvert a one
man one vote process.
The last true mass party in Kenya was KANU. It had a vibrant
membership, formal structure, and active branch offices. However, for much of its
history, it flourished as a beneficiary of a single party dictatorship with a
large share of its members coerced into its activities. Unfortunately, none of
the political parties that have emerged since the return of multi-party
democracy have been able to craft a functional organization. Worse, while
demanding democratic practice and transparency by the government, these parties
have all been unable to successfully hold holistic democratic and transparent
elections. Attempts to do this have been the death knell of the great parties
of the last two decades – FORD, NARC and ODM. Only KANU under Uhuru Kenyatta
attempted to carry out comprehensive grassroots to national elections, predictably followed by a major fall-out. All
these organizations turned out to be but paper tigers that survived on
personality cults.
Since the last general election, none of the owners of the three
major parties - TNA, ODM and URP – have shown an appetite for reorganization
and elections within their parties. Meetings are held, and declarations are
made of near-future party elections. But will the paralysis brought about by
fear of fall-outs be overcome this time? Are party owners willing to relinquish
dictatorial control over parties? Are party enthusiasts willing to take a more
active role in party affairs including financial contributions? This would
allow them to make a grounded claim to ownership and therefore decision making
within the party.
