Political parties in many African countries are known for lacking proper framework, long-term strategies and ideologies. As a result, they do not, in most cases, have competent policies that create positive impact on the welfare of the electorates. It is no wonder that these political parties have a short lifespan with a limited membership.



The Kenya African National Union (KANU) ruled for more than 40 years. Its policies were deeply ingrained in society. Even at the primary level, school children would recite the party's anthem without a struggle. Its emblem and its flag even resembled that of the nation (Kenya). To a visitor, it is difficult to differentiate between the country and KANU.



But since KANU's collapse in 2002, Kenya's political scene has seen more than 40 political parties competing for different positions. So dynamic has been the political environment in Kenya that the political party that sponsored President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013 is not the same one he is representing in the upcoming election in August 2017.



With such changes, it has become difficult to have a continuous and smooth policy change. Ultimately, this has had detrimental effects not only on the economy but also on social development.



For instance, despite KANU having had very strong, development-oriented policies, most of its ideologies were discarded in 2003 after the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) won the elections. NARC's effort in coming up with its own policies has translated into a waste of time and resources, which could have been used to solve other critical issues.



However, having realized how wasteful and hollow such moves were, Kenya is now shifting to a new political-parties platform. It is adopting the Chinese model where one political party can be used as a vehicle for different candidates in different political contests at different times.



It is no wonder that since November last year, Kenya has been sponsoring different politicians in China for an exchange program with the Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership.



Founded in 1921, the CPC is seen as one of the world's largest and strongest parties with a following of more than 85 million Party members. Unlike in Africa, the CPC dominates the political life in China.



Politicians who have already gone through the exchange program say they would like to see Kenya adopt the CPC's unique structure. They would like to see political parties have a national party congress every five years where delegates would meet for a plenary to elect a central committee which would convene at least once a year. The central committee then elects another group, which may be known as politburo to rule the political party, say Jubilee, in the case of Kenya.



The politicians claim that when such a structure is implemented, Kenya would have a top-down power flow, making it (very) easy to run the party and the country. But that is not all. Kenya also seeks to imitate the CPC's Secretariat system where the day-to-day administrative affairs of the political party are facilitated.



There is little doubt that such a structure can be replicated in Kenya. Certainly, Kenya and other African countries urgently need a political system whose commitment to the public is solid, and well defined. In this way, African countries would have no excuse for not developing.



But the biggest threat to such a model is that most African countries' political parties are formed not based on a specific ideology but on tribalism. In Kenya, for instance, the ruling party, Jubilee, is composed of the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities, in a country that has more than 42 tribes.



This calls for a change in tact, such that a CPC-like political party in Kenya would involve all or virtually all communities in the country.



The author is a journalist on African issues based in Nairobi, Kenya. mkapchanga@gmail.com