The Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT) has set aside the decision by the Registrar of Political Parties declining to reserve the name Linda Mwananchi Movement and ordered the Registrar to reserve the name within seven days.
The Tribunal found that the Registrar’s decision to decline the reservation lacked legal justification and amounted to a denial of the applicants’ right to form or participate in the formation of a political party. “The decision by the Registrar declining to reserve the name Linda Mwananchi is hereby set aside,” the Tribunal ordered.
The case was brought by Caroli Omondi, Pauline Njoroge and Faith Odhiambo, who identify themselves as founders of the Linda Mwananchi Movement. They had challenged the Registrar’s refusal to reserve the name and its proposed abbreviation, LLM, and sought orders compelling the Registrar to approve and reserve them in their favour. The Tribunal consequently directed the Registrar to proceed with the reservation of the name within seven days of its decision.
However, the Tribunal also made a distinction between the proposed Linda Mwananchi Movement and an earlier reservation of the name “Linda.”
It ruled that the earlier reservation of the name “Linda”, made on November 15, 2024, had lapsed after the applicants failed to submit a formal application for provisional registration within the statutory 90-day period. The Tribunal held that the expiry of the reservation extinguished any priority or enforceable interest attached to the name. “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 Tribunal ruled.
The panel, chaired by Innocent Muganda, considered the statutory framework governing the reservation and provisional registration of political party names, including Sections 4B and 5 of the Political Parties Act.
The Registrar had told the Tribunal that no formal application for provisional registration had been filed within the 90-day period following the reservation of the name “Linda”. The Tribunal said its examination of the documents presented in the case also found no formal application for provisional registration within the prescribed period. It further found that a letter relied upon by an interested party did not meet the legal threshold for an application for reservation or provisional registration.
The Tribunal noted that the Registrar later wrote to Linda on August 14, 2026, requesting documents as part of a formal application for provisional registration. According to the Tribunal, this further demonstrated that no formal application had previously been filed within the required period.
The Tribunal held that an expired reservation could not be revived through an administrative record or subsequent action, saying any attempt to do so after the statutory period had elapsed would have no legal basis.
