By Anderson Ojwang
President William Ruto has embarked on his 2027 presidential re-election campaign by ordering a repeat of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) grassroots elections.
The move is aimed at securing 584,000 votes countrywide for Ruto from party officials, from the grassroots to the national level.
Taking a cue from the former ruling party KANU and the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the President understands where his secret votes lie in his pursuit of a second term.
In the 2022 general elections, UDA did not have offices and party officials across the country except in its strongholds of Mt Kenya and the Rift Valley regions.
Currently, only UDA and ODM have countrywide grassroots party officials, while other political parties enjoy support mainly from their regions.
Politics of polling centers
The polling station is the political aorta of any political party, where it is made or unmade, and that is why Ruto has moved decisively to reposition UDA nationally.
“Successful democratic countries are built on a solid foundation of political parties. It is important for us to understand that the political party is not the political leader, the National Executive Council, or the National Governing Council. The political party is the grassroots.
The polling station is where the political party is made or unmade. That polling station. So I want to encourage you: if you go to any successful political party, its success is in the grassroots.”
The numbers and what they mean for Ruto’s re-election
President Ruto is concerned about leadership at the grassroots to jumpstart his re-election campaign, and that is why figures and numbers matter most to him.
“We have positions for 540,000 officials in the party—20 people per polling center. We carried out the elections the other day, and many of the senior leaders here, MCAs and MPs, did not even bother to participate.
Very few participated. I give credit to Kirinyaga and Bomet counties; at least in those two counties, we saw many members come out to participate.
But in other counties, participation was very low. You find only 50 people or even 20 people came to vote in a polling center.
Tell me, if 30 people came to vote in a polling center, do we say that election went well?
So we have instructed the National Election Board that any polling center where less than 50 people voted, we repeat the exercise. And please, I want to ask you, the grassroots are very important,” he said.
UDA ward leadership to change
President Ruto has embarked on a move that will ensure senior members of the party hold leadership positions at the ward and branch levels.
“The grassroots are very important. I want to encourage those of us here to go and become ward chairpersons in your counties. Those are the people who are going to decide the direction of the party going forward.
Nominations will be decided by the party, whether for MPs or MCAs. They will be decided by the party, and the party must have legitimacy.
The legitimacy of the party comes from members voting for party officials. We are going to redo the exercise where we did not do well.”
KANU and ODM grassroots equation
Currently, President Ruto has embarked on a move to enter into a pre-election coalition pact with ODM and has also brought KANU National Chairman Gideon Moi into the broad-based arrangement.
Gideon Moi dropped his Baringo senatorial by-election candidature to join President Ruto in the broad-based government.
ODM party leader Dr. Oburu Oginga was recently mandated by the party’s Central Committee to engage with UDA on a pre-election coalition arrangement.
“I want to tell you, the reason why KANU succeeded for many years was because people lined up at polling stations to elect grassroots leaders of the party.
The reason why ODM is where it is today is because they carry out elections at polling centers. So there is no other way—we must have elected officials at the polling stations.”
Friends or no friends, party first
President Ruto said party members at polling stations will have the mandate to choose their leaders and that elections will not be determined by friendship.
“I know you have friends. I also have friends. Even if your preferred person at the polling station is someone you think is good and loyal, the people at the polling station may not share the same view.
So tell your person to go and compete at the polling station. We must accept whoever is elected. All of us have our people.”
Let the people decide
President Ruto said there are officials who were appointed and that they must now go to the ballot to seek legitimacy.
“We have people in the party list as officials whose names we wrote. It is time now to take them to the ballot.
Once somebody has been voted for, they get the feeling of being elected. Let us give a chance for others to be elected at the polling station. Through this, you create loyal members of the party.
When someone has been elected, it is not easy for them to walk away because they value the mandate they have been given,” he said.
