Editor's Review

The PPDT set aside the decision by the ORPP to refuse to reserve the name Linda Mwananchi Movement.

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has been handed a lifeline by the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) in the battle to register Linda Mwananchi as a party.

In a ruling issued on Wednesday, September 30, the PPDT set aside the decision by the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties  (ORPP)to refuse to reserve the name Linda Mwananchi Movement.

The Tribunal found no legal justification to decline to reserve the name, and that the ORPP's actions amounted to denial of the applicant's right to form a political party.

Consequently, PPDT ordered the Registrar of Political Parties to reserve the Linda Mwananchi Movement name within seven days.

According to the tribunal, the ORPP erred in reserving the name for the Liberty National Democratic Alliance (LINDA)party.

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A file photo of Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna.

It declared that while the party made a reservation for the name, it did not make a formal application for provisional registration within the 90 days as demanded by the Political Parties Act. 

“Accordingly, we find that the reservation made on 15 November 2024 lapsed and was extinguished by operation of the statute itself and no action can breathe life into it. The name became available for reservation by the Interested Party or by any other applicant," the Tribunal ruled.

The Tribunal, however, declined to grant the requests by the petitioners to issue orders to bar the Registrar from considering, processing, reserving or registering the name Linda,  or names bearing the words Linda Mwananchi or any deceptively similar variation, for another person or entity.

It also found that LINDA was not a fully registered political party,  therefore lacked the legal capacity to sue or be sued, or participate in proceedings in its own name.

The ruling came after Suba South MP Caroli Omondi, political strategist Pauline Njoroge and former Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Faith Odhiambo challenged the ORPP's decision to decline to reserve the Linda Mwananchi Movement name.

Njoroge, Omondi and Odhiambo identified themselves as the founders of the Linda Mwananchi Movement (LLM).