Sh3bn to kick-off Kenya referendum

The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) will get a Sh3 billion boost in this year’s supplementary budget to be tabled in the House later this month.

The money will be used to cater for voter registration, an exercise set to begin within the next fortnight.

Finance assistant minister Oburu Oginga said even though the IIEC had so far been given just Sh1.1 billion of its budgetary requirement of Sh7.3 billion, the money was sufficient for the request it made to the Treasury. The electoral body will meanwhile use part of its current allocations to start off the process while waiting for the supplementary budget.

“We will avail some money to the IIEC if it exhausts its current allocations (before the Supplementary Budget or the next Budget),” said Dr Oginga.

Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba (ODM) raised the query on the probability of the electoral body failing to register voters and holding the referendum on the draft Constitution.

Mr Namwamba, a member of Parliament’s committee on justice and legal affairs and also of the select committee on Constitution review, said the IIEC was “concerned that there was a lack of funds to handle its functions.”

Reform Agenda

The two committees are directly in touch with the electoral body in implementing the reform agenda.

“I assure this House that the government will provide funds to the IIEC,” Dr Oginga said.

The assistant minister said the referendum money will come from donors, but this drew the wrath of MPs who questioned the Government’s chest-thumping over sovereignty “when it can’t run a referendum.”

“This (help) is not unique (as) the development partners have been supporting our reform agenda and that in no way compromises our sovereignty,” Dr Oginga added.

Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara (CCU), Garsen’s Danson Mungatana (Narc-Kenya) and Isiolo South’s Abdul Bahari (Kanu) queried why the government released very meagre resources to the IIEC knowing very well the mandate that the “important institution” is charged with.

“Is the government broke or how do you explain the inadequate allocations?” posed Mr Bahari.

Mr Mungatana questioned why the IIEC’s push for electronic voting had not been allocated money.

Dr Oginga replied: “We act on the request of the IIEC and e-voting was not part of the request that we received. If they bring it, we’ll factor it in the next budget.”

There were a few jitters from Mosop MP David Koech (ODM) who reckoned that it was unlikely that the referendum would take place in July as was anticipated per the law review timetable.

Mr Imanyara too said the government had to “get serious and ensure it sticks to the reform time-table.”