Maendeleo Chap Chap (MCC) Party belonging to Foreign Affairs CS Dr. Alfred Mutua is facing serious financial woes putting it at the brink of exiting Kenya’s political stage.
The situation has forced Mutua to go underground as he plans to disband the party and peg it to Kenya Kwanza affiliates and form one national political unit.
MCC has been unable to pay its few workers at its head office who have gone without salaries for months and the landlord is also set to auction its office assets to cover rent arrears.
The auctioneer has advertised and the date is set to be on March 8 2023 [tomorrow] at Purple Royal Auction yard in Nairobi where its office items will be auctioned.
“In a matter of distress for rent, The Landlord Vs Maendeleo Chap Chap Party…..On Wednesday 8/3/2023 at 10.30 am at Purple Royal and Auction located behind Club Sidai Oleng next to Wonderjoy Gardens, there shall be a public auction” ” the public auction notice reads in part.
The items to face the hammer include one 7-seater leather sofa set, Kyocera photocopy machine, Von plasma TV, four rolling machines, two metallic office cabinets, a water dispenser, 2HP printing machines, 1 three drawer cabinet, 2HP computers, and a wooden stand.
Others include 2 glass top oval tables, 4 wooden office desks, Von two-door fridge, a microwave, four burner table gas cooker, a wooden kitchen table, Ashton meter electrical heater, a small wooden stool, a leather rolling chair, 3 quanta solar batteries, wooden office desk among other items.
Things got worse for the ‘yellow and purple party’ after Mutua was appointed CS by President William Ruto as the constitution automatically stops him from assuming any role in party politics.
But it is not the first time that MCC is finding itself in trouble with auctioneers over rent dispute with its landlord. In 2021, the party’s property in Nairobi was also put up for auction over similar claims.
The items included office chairs and desks, workstation, waiting sofas, water dispensers, wall units, rolls of floor carpets, TVs, monitors and CPUs, HP printers, reception counter, conference table band printer stands.
The news to auction MCC items and wind it up comes at the time when affiliate parties in the Kenya Kwanza alliance are jittery over a grand plan by President Ruto’s UDA party to have all smaller partners merge into one big political machine.
UDA’s newly appointed secretary general Cleophas Malala has revealed that his number one assignment is to draft a merger road-map.
Kenya Kwanza parties including Ford-K and members of MCC are reportedly jittery over the ambitious plan to cobble up a giant political machine ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Kibwezi West MP Hon. Mwengi Mutuse said MCC will not be folding up.
“Maendeleo Chap Chap is an independent party and I can confidently tell our members that we will not fold. Instead, we shall grow the party to be stronger going forward. This way, we will make a meaningful contribution to our coalition,” Mutuse said.
Those opposed to the formation of a big political machine cite the grand Jubilee merger in 2016 that saw parties later regret their decisions after former President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto bitterly fell out in the run up to 2022 polls.
But Malala has insisted that all smaller parties in Kenya Kwanza must fold up and join the UDA party. In a message targeting Speakers Moses Wetangula and Amason Kingi, he emphasized that it will be wrong to sit in President Ruto’s cabinet and refuse to fold up your party
Kenya Kwanza government is a coalition of the political parties that include Ford Kenya, Amani National Congress, Maendeleo Chap Chap, Democratic Party, Farmers Party of Kenya among others.
As things stand, it’s only Mutua’s MCC party that is keen on folding up to join President Ruto’s UDA Party.
