Party of National Unity (Kenya)

Party of National Unity (PNU) is a newly created political coalition of parties in Kenya. On September 16 2007, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announced the new formation and said that he will run as its presidential candidate in the December 2007 Kenyan elections.

Overview

The PNU is a coalition of several parties, including: KANU, Narc-Kenya, Ford-Kenya, Ford-People, Democratic Party, Shirikisho and others. President Mwai Kibaki was to be the only personal member of PNU besides the corporate membership through the affiliated parties. [ [http://www.pnuparty.com/ PNU-homepage , seen on 3-01-2008] ]

PNU was created shortly before the elections to held in December 2007. Until Beginning of September it was not clear on which party's ticket the president was going to run. In the 2002 elections, Kibaki ran as the candidate of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), which had since split. The erstwhile original NARC was legally in the hands of its chairperson Charity Ngilu who showed no inclination of siding with Kibaki for a renewed bid. Kibakis allies had already pulled out of NARC and founded NARC-Kenya which was, however, not on good terms with a number of important politicians in Kibakis government of National Unity which had seen the intake of erstwhile opposition figures since 2005 who held on to their parties like KANU or Ford-Kenya. [ [http://www.jaluo.com/wangwach/200709/Miguna_Miguna090307.html Kibaki's re-election bid in disarray as Raila takes charge of ODM - Jaluo dot Kom newsletter 4-09-2008] ]

Elections

Poor political preparation of the new party became obvious in the process of nomination for parliamentary seats. Initially, PNU member parties agreed to field parliamentary and civic candidates under PNU, except KANU, which was permitted field its own candidates [The Standard, October 11, 2007: [http://eastandard.net/news/?id=1143975837 PNU agrees on joint nominations] ] . However, this agreement failed to materialise. As a result, some candidates -mainly from Kibaki's former Democratic Party- contested under PNU ticket and others under their respective parties. In a number of constituencies PNU-affiliated candidates were contesting against each other for the same parliamentary seat [Daily Nation, November 19, 2007: [http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=110887 PNU parties flout election deal] ] .

PNU fared poorly in the parliamentary elections 2007 reaching only 43 seats against nearly 99 for its main rival ODM. Together with affiliated parties, however, it could command around 78 members of parliament.

References

*International Herald Tribune, September 16, 2007: [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/16/africa/AF-POL-Kenya-Elections.php Kenyan president announces new party affiliation for re-election bid]
*BBC News, September 16, 2007: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6997659.stm Kenya president eyes re-election] On February 28, 2008 through a mediation team headed by former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, the PNU government reached at a deal with the ODM to share power. ODM is headed by Raila Odinga. The power sharing deal was the first one of its kind in Africa.

External links

* [http://www.pnuparty.com PNUparty.com]
* [http://www.pnudiaspora.com/index-0.aspx PNU Diaspora]
* [http://kenyavotes.org/node/93 PNU 2007 Manifesto]
* [http://kenyavotes.org/candidates/116 PNU 2007 Parliamentary Candidates]