The National Development Party (NDP) was political party in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

 which was of national importance between 1994 and 2001.

Becoming Odinga's party

Being an unimportant splinter group until 1994 it was joined by Raila Odinga

Raila Odinga

Raila Amollo Odinga , also popularly known to Kenyans as Agwambo, is a Kenyan politician, currently serving as the Prime Minister of Kenya in a coalition government. He has served as a Member of Parliament for Langata since 1992, was Minister of Energy from 2001 to 2002, and was Minister of Roads,...

 after he left Ford-Kenya when he did not win the leadership of that party. Odinga pulled the Ford-members of parliament from Nyanza Province

Nyanza Province

Nyanza Province of Kenya, is one of Kenya's eight administrative provinces. It is located in the southwest part of Kenya around Lake Victoria. Nyanza includes part of the eastern edge of Lake Victoria and is inhabited predominantly by the Luo. There are also Bantu-speaking tribes such as the...

 with him. They won the by-elections stipulated by Kenyan law after a party change thus propelling NDP to the position of a major opposition party in the Kenyan parliament.

The party managed to retain its strong position in Nyanza region mainly among the Luo

Luo (family of ethnic groups)

The Luo are an ethnic linguistic group located in an area that stretches from South Sudan and Ethiopia through northern Uganda and eastern Congo , into western Kenya, and ending in the upper tip of Tanzania. These people speak an Eastern Sudanic language, a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language...

 population during the 1997 elections when it returned 21 members to parliament.

Cooparation and coalition with KANU

In 2000 NDP started to cooperate with the KANU-government of president Daniel arap Moi

Daniel arap Moi

Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was the President of Kenya from 1978 until 2002.Daniel arap Moi is popularly known to Kenyans as 'Nyayo', a Swahili word for 'footsteps'...

. From June 2001 three ministers of NDP joined the cabinet thus inaugurating the first coalition cabinet in Kenya's history.

2002 Merger and split with KANU

In spring 2002 NDP merged with KANU. NDP leader Odinga became General Secretary of the united Party. This union was to be short lived as from summer 2002 it became obvious that Moi was determined to have Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor which was confirmed by a KANU congress in October 2002. Odinga who had been aware of manipulated lists of delegates pulled out from the congress together with his followers from the former NDP and was joined by a number of KANU politicians who protested against Moi's manipulation of the party meeting in favour of his chosen candidate.

Together they joined the until then insignificant Liberal Democratic Party which was to be one of the founding members of the National Rainbow Coalition

National Rainbow Coalition

The National Rainbow Coalition was a coalition of Kenyan political parties in power from 2002 and 2005 when it fell apart in a controversy between its wings about a constitutional referendum.-Formation:...

which went on to win the 2002 presidential and parliamentary elections.

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