Response by Jubilee Secretary General on Membership of National Management Committee
Press Release: Hon. Raphael Tuju, Secretary-General Jubilee
Our attention has been drawn to the matter of new names added to become members of the National Management Committee of Jubilee Party that has received some mass media coverage. As stated in some media interviews, these were additions necessitated by the departure of some officials at different times in the last one year, apart from one instance when two officials were from one county. Another addition was of the current Executive Director who replaced the previous official who became a CAS.
Of course, the very reason of the Office of Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) would give a Gazette notice was to solicit objections, not support. From what we have seen so far in social media it is apparent that some orchestrated objections have been sent to the ORPP and we are awaiting the official communication from the Registrar on those protests and will respond.
The only matter of concern is that the social media was supposedly chosen by some leaders to air their grievances while they do have at their disposal other internal channels of communication. We say supposedly because what we have seen in the social media may have come from some false of parody accounts of such high-ranking individuals. Some of those high-ranking individuals are on record as having always advised or insisted that internal party matters should be strictly settled using the Party internal dispute resolution mechanisms.
We at the Party headquarters have adhered to the policy of settling differences in the Party within the Party to the letter especially in the face of very emotive submissions with respect to the National Elections Board that was accused of having been used as a rigging machine in the Mount Kenya Region.
We therefore wish to believe that some of the vitriol exhibited were from parody social media accounts of these very senior and respected leaders of the Party who have access to many channels of communication with the Party leadership. We have always tried our best to steady the ship and even in this instance we ask our members and supporters to remain calm and that we expect especially those of us who are serving based on transitional clauses in our Constitution and were not elected into those positions in the first place, to conduct themselves with decorum. That includes the Office of the Secretary-General.
The much talked about additions were made long before the Corona virus menace visited us. What was filed by the Party last month to comply with March 31st deadline were normal yearly returns that are required by law in terms of changes of offices bearers, signatories to the accounts and other material issues that the register may require by law. This is what informed the Registrars Gazette Notice.
It is unfortunate that the altercations about these matters are coming at a time when the leadership of this country should be focused on the one most important thing. That is the war against COVID-19.
We must not loose focus on what is most important today even as we complain about the National Management Committee of Jubilee or the National Elections Board of Jubilee for that Matters. Kenya is bigger than Jubilee Party and the biggest challenge to Kenya today is the Corona virus.
