The National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. As an alliance, it was in power from 2002 and 2005 when it collapsed due to disagreements between members over a constitutional referendum.

Formation

In preparation of the 2002 elections, the

National Alliance Party of Kenya The National Alliance (TNA) was a political party in Kenya. It took on its current identity when Uhuru Kenyatta assumed control and renamed it as the vehicle for his 2012 presidential campaign. History The National Alliance was founded as the N ...

(Formerly NAK now NAPK) allied itself with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to form the National Alliance of Rainbow Coalition (NARC). On December 27, 2002, NARC won a landslide victory over KANU. NARC presidential candidate

Mwai Kibaki Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki (15 November 1931 – 21 April 2022) was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013 and is regarded as one of Kenya's founding fathers. He had previously ser ...

got 62% of the votes in the presidential elections, against only 31% for the KANU candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta. On December 30, 2002, Mwai Kibaki was sworn in as the third

President of Kenya The president of the Republic of Kenya () is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Kenya. The President is also the head of the executive branch of the Government of Kenya and is the commander-in-chief of the Kenya Def ...

NARC government

Despite its initial popularity, the NARC-led government has been troublesome. The friction between LDP and those loyal to Kibaki became apparent. After the Kenyan constitutional referendum in 2005, all LDP members were thrown out of the government. Subsequently, LDP became an opposition party, forming the

Orange Democratic Movement The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a centre-left political party in Kenya. It is the successor of a grassroots people's movement which was formed during the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum campaign. This movement separated in Augus ...

, a coalition of opposition politicians. Later, NARC members loyal to Kibaki founded a new party, NARC-Kenya. Consequently, the original NARC was left in the hands of its chairperson Charity Ngilu who also served as the minister of health.

2007 elections

On 5 October 2007, Ngilu announced her support for the

and its presidential candidate, Raila Odinga, in the December 2007 general election;.Alex Kiprotich and Ben Agina
"Kibaki finally fires Ngilu"
, ''The Standard'' (Kenya), October 7, 2007.Magreat Kalekye
"Ngilu states her political stand"
, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, October 5, 2007. She initially said that she was remaining in the government, despite backing Kibaki's main rival. However, her dismissal from the government by Kibaki was announced on October 6. While supporting ODM, Ngilu defended her parliamentary seat on NARC ticket. Under Ngilu, NARC won 3 seats in the new Kenyan parliament altogether.

2013 elections

After briefly running her own campaign, Ngilu initially opted to support Raila Odinga for the presidency in 2013, signing a coalition agreement involving NARC, ODM, Wiper Democratic Movement and FORD-Kenya, before walking out at the last minute to join the Jubilee Alliance.

References

{{Authority control Defunct political party alliances in Kenya Defunct political parties in Kenya Political parties established in 2002 2002 establishments in Kenya Political parties disestablished in 2016 2016 disestablishments in Kenya