Communist Party members sue ex-chairman as takeover fight intensifies

Members of the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK) have sued their former chairman for seeking to take over the party after resigning and joining public service.

In the suit before the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal, the members claim Mwandawiro Mghanga left the party when he joined the Taita Taveta county government as an executive committee member but is still purporting to be the party leader.

“He had resigned and quit his position on October 2020 when he joined public service as a county officer but has come back claiming he is still the chairman and wants to take it from members who had passed a resolution to replace him,” said Mr David Owiti.

Owiti filed the affidavit on behalf of the party members who accused Mghanga of colluding with the party’s secretary general Benedict Wachira to secretly have him back as the leader without consulting them.

The members alleged that the two have been using the party’s name to seek donor funding which they have been misappropriating without giving true accounts of expenditure.

According to the members, the party has been receiving funding from well-wishers from China and the United States of America, running into millions of shillings. However, they said, only the two officials have been befitting from the proceeds.

The members want the tribunal to stop Mghanga and Wachira from carrying out party activities and a declaration that Mghanga is no longer the chairman, having resigned to join public service in 2020.

But Mghanga, in his response, accused the members of filing the suit with ill motive, claiming he did not resign from the party when he took up the position in the county government.

“Their allegations are based on falsehoods and should not be entertained by the tribunal. Some of the complainants are not even members of the Communist Party but want to use unsubstantiated grounds to remove us,” said Mghanga.

He added that he is still the party leader since there has been no election to replace him or any party congress to ratify the purported changes in party leadership.