Election timelines and activities 

Significant political event of the week:

1. UDA endorses DP Dr. Ruto as the Presidential Flagbearer

On Tuesday, the National Delegates Conference of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) endorsed Deputy President William Ruto as the party’s presidential flagbearer. DP Ruto will now officially face former Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the country’s top seat in the August 2022 election.

2. KEPSA Hosts UDA Presidential Flagbearer for a Private Sector Economic Manifesto Forum

On Thursday 17th March, 2022 the Presidential hopeful DP Dr. Ruto met with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) leadership as part of the planned engagements with Presidential Candidates for the 2022 Elections on the Private Sector Economic Manifesto. This is being done under the auspicious Mkenya Daima Campaign that aims to foster peaceful elections that will not interfere or bring to a halt Kenya’s socio-economic development. 

This is premised on the fact that in the past every five years when Kenya goes through the electoral process to put in place its political leadership, it periodically experiences election-related tensions and an economic downturn with the GDP taking a dip. For this reason, KEPSA under the Mkenya Daima banner is seeking to work with the aspiring leaders to influence their manifestos to be people-centred and economy conscious, and urge for peaceful co-existence before, during and after the 2022 elections.

During the meeting Dr. Ruto pledged to accept the results of the general election and that he would go through legal formal channels (the judiciary) to contest the results if need be and requested that his counterparts do the same. 

Further, the Presidential hopeful declared that on his first day in office, if elected, he would sign off 3 Executive Orders relating to delinking of IG and judiciary from the executive. This would be achieved by for instance by operationalizing the proposed judiciary fund to enhance financial independence away from the executive. In addition to this, he stated that his government would find ways of implementing the housing fund within his first 100 days in office in order to stimulate the One Trillion Shilling investment needed to grow the sector.

With regards to tax administration, Dr. Ruto stated that there is a need to digitise collection of taxes in order to increase revenue and enhance efficiency. By increasing tax collections, the country would be able to reduce its growing appetite for borrowing. 

While reiterating the UDA Presidential candidate’s remarks, Hon. Mudavadi who was present at the forum stated that the Kenya Kwanza Alliance was keen on working with the Private Sector to secure job opportunities in key sectors such as agriculture in order to expand the tax base. Furthermore, he emphasised the need for state agencies, particularly the revenue authority, to work with private entities who may be avoiding or evading taxes through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms as opposed to threatening to and contributing towards business closure as this does not help anybody. “We should work to enhance our arbitration processes to buttress the formal judicial process in order to avoid wastage of resources and work together to build our economy,” Hon. Mudavadi added. 

As Kenya looks forward to the 2022 General Elections, and the evolving governance space, it was collectively agreed that there is a need to collectively look and envision a prosperous Kenya and aspire towards that vision.

Next upcoming significant event: 

• Safina Party aspirants nomination application extended to 25th March, 2022

• Ubuntu People’s Forum Party nomination application deadline set for 22nd March, 2022

• Political Parties to submit party membership lists to the IEBC on  April 9,  2022.
• Political parties intend to present candidates in the election to submit the names of persons contesting in the party primaries, the date and venues of the primaries.