East African Legislative Assembly member Joseph Kiangoi has dismissed the planned launching on the Jubilee Party of Kenya as a vehicle for President Uhuru Kenyatta’s second bid in 2017.
Mr Kiangoi who was speaking on Thursday at his North Mugirango backyard termed it as a plot to jeopardize democracy in the country and said the formation of the party was an indication that the government was in opposition to multiparty democracy which the county has been enjoying since the early 1990s.
He slammed remarks of the Deputy President William Ruto that the planned party will not entertain those who were of the option of post-election pacts saying coalitions promoted equal representations from all regions.
“I am really discouraged with the government’s plan of launching a Jubilee party. It’s even discouraging when they are compelling small parties to join them. That is an infringement to democratic space which we fought for many years. Coalition governments are even in advanced democracies, therefore, it’s wrong for someone to even dismiss post-election pacts,” he said.
He said the planned party was not for the common good of Kenyans and challenged smaller parties to remain intact and ignore calls for dissolution.
“The smaller parties should dismiss the call and remain intact because the government has got the concept of democracy wrong. The reason why we should have many parties is to give Kenya’s an option to go for the party they think it’s best for them. Jubilee coalition should promote democratic space by abandoning plans to even abolish its coalition parties,” he added.
Jubilee coalition is planning to form a single political party that will see its founding parties URP and TNA dissolved with also a call on affiliate parties to dissolve.