Inside William Ruto's Strategic Plan To Turn UDA Into Strong Political Powerhouse

• After the August 2022 polls, President William Ruto started restructuring and reorganising UDA party in preparation for the 2027 contest
• The team embarked on a fresh round of massive recruitment exercise targeting 15 million members locally and internationally
• On Saturday, August 19, UDA diaspora team kicked off registration and party popularisation exercise in Dallas and Texas

President William Ruto's UDA party is still hungry for power despite being in power. The outfit is determined to dominate the political space for decades and generations to come, and the leadership is leaving nothing to chance.

The president has on several occasions indicated that he wants to build a party of the future. A strong political outfit that will outlive its founders and carry the dreams and aspirations of future generations.

True to his words, the president has ensured the ruling party remains on course by planning ahead of time. He has also ensured UDA remains ambitious and continues to yearn for more.

1. Strengthening structures and distracting opponent

After the August 2022 polls, the ruling party embarked on an instant mission to strengthen its structures and seek collaboration with other parties, particularly those that had sided with the opposition outfit.

At least 25 MPs from Jubilee Party defected to UDA and a host of others from other parties such as UDM joined the government.

The ruling party also courted 11 out of 12 Independent MPs to work with the government. At least 9 MPs elected on ODM ticket have defied their leader Raila Odinga and are now working closely with UDA.

This has greatly disadvantaged the opposition team and thrown every plan they had to distract Ruto’s government into disarray.

2. Strategic post-election transition

After the elections, UDA replaced Veronica Maina and Johnson Muthama with Cleophas Malala and Cecily Mbarire as the new party secretary-general and chairperson respectively.

Veronica Maina's appointment as the UDA SG at the time political temperatures were simmering was strategic, and so was her replacement.

While Muthama gave the party the much-needed national outlook, Maina, ensured order, sanity and fairness prevailed at all times.

Maina is a known consensus builder and a pragmatic leader who pays keen attention to details. This is the person UDA needed to manage the emotive and highly contested party nominations that threaten to ripple the party apart.

After winning the elections, and with all the structures in place, UDA needed some new force and energy to flex its political muscles in the country ahead of the next contest.

Former Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala was the right man for the job.

Although his appointment elicited a torrent of mixed reactions, with critics opining that he was too young and inexperienced to lead the ruling party in the capacity of the SG, Ruto knew what he wanted.

Malala brought two things; he gave UDA the political vibrancy that his predecessor had kept under wraps after the polls; and endeared the outfit to the youth.

A good SG, naturally, should be a great mobiliser, consensus-builder, part-time rabble-rouser, media friendly, and outspoken enough to defend the party position and advance its interests.

Malala is a package of all these attributes, and President William Ruto might have spotted it long before he ascended to power.

When he was in ANC, Malala was undoubtedly the face of the party on the ground. He mobilised and rallied the masses behind Musalia Mudavadi in Western Kenya and beyond.

During Matungu by-election, for instance, Malala single-handedly fought ODM wave in the constituency and nearly dethroned it.

He was the face of the campaign and stole the show every time he appeared in the media. On the voting day, he caused a scene at a polling centre when he alleged that police officers had robbed him of KSh 2 million cash.

Similarly, Mbarire is a stellar politician with a strong character and attributes of a lioness. She has survived the political storms in Mt Kenya and repeatedly floored men in all the contests, rising through the ranks to become the first female governor of Embu.

Mbarire is a go-getter and thorough grassroots mobiliser who will without doubt strengthen UDA’s firm grip on Mt Kenya voting bloc.

The pole position gives her more influence in the region, more so among women, which is a big advantage to UDA party, particularly in its quest to retain political power.

3. UDA continuous registration

Immediately after they were appointed, Malala, Mbarire and the team embarked on a fresh round of massive recruitment exercise targeting 15 million members.

The team has visited at least 15 counties, including the opposition’s strongholds of Kisumu and Siaya, to popularise the party and register new members.

This is happening 4 years before the next general election.

The party also has a continuous online recruitment process that has remained active since its inception in 2021.

More interestingly, UDA’s diaspora team is working on a similar campaign using social media platforms and town hall meetings.

For instance, the UDA Dallas Chapter in the USA launched massive grassroots recruitment on Saturday, August 19, 2023, at the Victoria Folake Event Centre.

“We invite all Kenyans in the US who can attend to come. The Saturday event targets Kenyans living in Dallas and Texas who subscribe to the ideals of the UDA party. We will have more of these events in other states in the coming days,” said one of the organisers, Danson Mukile.

“This will be an opportunity to meet and connect with various groups, business, academic and political movers in Dallas and beyond. It will also be a good opportunity to take stock of what the UDA government has achieved in the last year, particularly with regard to our interests as Kenyans living in the diaspora,” added Mukile.

4. Seeking global partnership

On Thursday, August 17, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua together with Malala held talks with the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China Zhou Pingjian to explore areas of cooperation.

“The UDA party has a lot to learn from the Communist Party of China (CPC), as we continue building UDA to a party of the century beyond elections. This will enhance political stability and predictability in addition to nurturing our Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda ideology,’ said Gachagua.

The CPC is the founding and ruling political party of modern China and has over 90 million members.

It was founded by Mao Zedong in early 1920 and took over the leadership of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It has maintained political power and monopoly since then.

The CPC, currently under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, has played a crucial role in the massive economic growth and transformation of China, a legacy UDA intends to achieve for Kenya.

Malala said the ruling party will borrow a leaf from CPC leadership and management of affairs with a view of building a solid outfit that will outlive its founders.

"The meeting signifies the strategic collaboration aimed at fortifying UDA's foundation for the future. Borrowing largely from the Communist Party of China (CPC) Communist Party of China (CPC), UDA aspires to evolve into a party capable of enduring political tides and times espoused on the embodiment of the transformative Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda,' said the party SG.

5. Development rallies

The president and his deputy have been traversing the country to commission and launch new projects.

They have been using these avenues to explain to the people what the government is doing and what it intends to do in the near future.

This is meant to counter the opposition's narratives and win Kenyan's support and trust ahead of the next contest.

One of the political mistakes former president Uhuru Kenyatta made was to keep mum about the projects he had done and allow critics to run away with false narratives to turn his region against him.

Ruto and Gachagua seem to have learned a lesson from this and are keen not to repeat it.