There is no money for by-elections: Treasury

The Treasury has cautioned against a push to declare more than 100 parliamentary seats vacant over party-hopping by sitting MPs.

Those parties involved should consider the cost of the by-elections that are likely to arise, Finance minister Njeru Githae said on Tuesday.

Mr Githae said that even if the seats are declared vacant, there will be no money to run the by-elections. “The seats that are declared vacant will stay like that until the next General Election,” he said.

The minister said that the country would need at least Sh5 billion to carry out the by-elections which come close to the next General Election, whose budget is still in contention.

“I would like to request the parties involved to consider the financial position of this country. It costs at least Sh50 million to conduct a by-election. Conducting 100 by-elections will cost about Sh5 billion. We have not budgeted for these by-elections,” Mr Githae said.

Treasury’s concerns came as Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission boss Issack Hassan said that the commission’s hands were tied by two cases that have been in court since last year.

He said that IEBC lawyers have advised the commission to keep off the matter until the cases are determined.

One case involves Narc-Kenya and its expelled members, Juja MP William Kabogo and Mike Mbuvi (Makadara).

The other involves ODM and its rebel members, led by Eldoret North MP William Ruto.

Registrar of Political Parties Ms Lucy Ndung’u removed Mr Kabogo and Mr Mbuvi from the Narc-Kenya register, but the two went to court arguing that the party did not give them a fair hearing.

ODM filed a constitutional application seeking to strip Mr Ruto, Charles Keter (Belgut), Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu), Aden Duale (Dujis) and Joshua Kutuny (Cherangany) of both their party membership and parliamentary seats.

Sources within IEBC say that the registrar has been unable to act because of a loophole in the law. It is unclear whether it is the registrar or the parties which should determine when one is “deemed to have resigned”.