The National Resistance Movement (NRM) party secretariat, led by Secretary General Richard Todwong (2nd right) and the delegation from Kenya’s ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, led by their Secretary General, Mr Hassan Omar Hassan (3rd left), at the former’s party head offices in Nakasero, Kampala on Thursday. PHOTOs/COURTESY OF THE NRM X HANDLE
Kenya’s ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party has expressed its readiness to benchmark its performance against the longevity of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party in Uganda.
“We admire that you have a good foundation to pick a leaf from and I will be looking forward to that structured partnership to learn from you (NRM). Kenya’s history of political parties is that they evolve from one election to another,” Mr Joash Maange, part of the seven-strong UDA delegation that paid a courtesy call to the NRM on Thursday, said.
He added: “UDA party emerged from the fallout within Jubilee formation in the lead up of the 2022 elections.”
Mr Maange is also Kenya's High Commissioner to Uganda.
President Museveni, 80, has ruled Uganda since 1986 and is widely expected to attempt to extend his presidency into a fourth decade when the country next goes to the polls in 2026.
Joining Mr Maange in the delegation that met NRM party officials were Mr Falhada Iman, an East Africa Legislative Assembly (Eala) lawmaker; Ms Zipporah Kering, an Eala lawmaker; and Dr David Ole Sankok, an Eala lawmaker.
Others were Mr Brian Mbugua, the deputy executive director of UDA; and Ms Annet Kipngetich, the manager of Legal Affairs and Compliance at UDA.
The delegation was led by Mr Hassan Omar, UDA’s secretary general.
He said: “My challenge and that of a party right now is to make it succeed beyond a term or two presidential elections. We want to institutionalise the party that will stand the test of time.”
Mr Omar said both UDA and NRM have a number of ties that bind them.
“Already, we have borrowed quite a bit from the NRM. Our colours (yellow) are shared, and I have heard our party leader speak highly and kindly about the various episodes of discussions they have had with President Museveni on how the NRM is managed, and how they have been able to build a movement, so strong and sustainable,” he said.
He noted that President William Ruto of Kenya founded UDA after opting to sever ties with the Jubilee Party.
“[He] ‘fished’ some of us, elements within the Opposition at that time, and the party was able to win presidential elections in 2022,” Mr Omar disclosed.
During the 2022 presidential elections, President Ruto, who had previously served as Kenya’s Deputy President, took a marginal win of 50.49 percent, with Mr Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) only mustering 48.8 percent of the vote.
Jubilee Party was founded on September 8, 2016, following the merger of 11 smaller parties.
During the 2017 election, the party won presidential elections that saw President Uhuru Kenyatta rule the East African country until September 13, 2022, when he was replaced by his former deputy President, Ruto.
The NRM and UDA officials during the meeting
Keen to benchmark
The UDA delegation paid a courtesy call to the NRM party barely a week after Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was impeached over a litany of charges, including insubordination to the president, inciting ethnic violence, corruption, undermining government and money laundering, among others.
President Ruto then nominated Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki to replace Gachagua pending a court process.
During Thursday’s visit, Mr Omar said UDA would soon send some of the members to come and learn about the NRM’s ideology, values, and aspirations with the view of replicating the template in Kenya.
“I will actually report to the party leader (Ruto) that we have had part of the interactions as much as the business that brought us here was partly also Eala and you agreed to have a dissuasion with us and for that matter, we can take the discussions to a level where we can have certain deliverables and work on a broad formula,” he told NRM’s team that was led by the party’s secretary general, Mr Richard Todwong.
Mr Omar also asked his NRM counterparts to visit UDA in Kenya with the goal of doing an analysis that will help both parties plug any gaps.
He said the majority of Kenyans admire NRM’s values, aspirations and ideology expounded by President Museveni.
“There is never a day you will not learn something from President Museveni. Last time, he talked in the simplest way what it means to build the economy and community and how it starts with the ideology of the party as the organising factor of government and the party as a disciplining factor in politics,” he said.
The UDA General Secretary noted that the two leaders, Museveni and Ruto, are extremely close partners in the struggle for a better Africa and East African Community.
He said the UDA government has shifted Kenya from ethnic conversations to talking about healthcare for all, affordable housing, agriculture and the economy.
Mr Maange on his part said both Uganda and Kenya “are extremely united”.
He added: “Without Uganda, the Kenya Port will not be productive and without the Kenya Port, Ugandans will not ship their containers.”
Lessons from Gen Z protests
Mr Todwong said for society to transform, a country needs leaders who can be durable to move along with the cycle of policy transformation.
According to him, for a policy to be actively engaged, it takes a minimum of 20 years.
“If your term of governance is five years, and every five years you keep changing, by the time you see results of the policy you introduced, you will not be involved. Somebody else will come and interrupt. This has been the interruption of Africa. How do we help and promote stability in the region?” he rhetorically asked.
Mr Todwong told the UDA team that parties keep changing when the interest of masses change and their (parties) priorities are no longer matching with the interests of the population.
He said the Gen Zs brought in a new narrative into the discourse of politics that instead of discussing politics of tribes, religion, who represents who, they were discussing real issues that affect citizens.
The Gen Z protests were a series of decentralised mass protests led by the youth in Kenya protesting taxes increases proposed in the Finance Bill 2024.
“That is how sensitive the political organisation should be. We always say bridge the gap between the party and masses. Keep closer to the people because a lot of things do change with them. Today, they elected you at 80 percent, you are in power for five years, but there are social conditions that are making them uncomfortable. The questions you will answer after five years will be different from what you answered five years ago. That is how societies change,” he said amid applause from the UDA delegation.
Mr Todwong added: “These are changes that you have to be monitoring every time. People and society grow in terms of change of interest, level of urbanisation, improved technology, and knowledge. These changes are constant, how do you as a political party monitor the social indicators. Are we having more young people getting jobs, are the urban population going without food, shelter, are we having more university students asking for tuition, what could have triggered this? Then you go back to the drawing table.”
The NRM secretary general said his party decided to have full-time staff at its secretariat because “they have to monitor the social screen where we adjust what? The way they change from others to you, they can also change from you to another person.”
