Treasury set to fork out Sh3bn for party primaries

The National Treasury could be forced to facilitate the electoral commission to fund party primaries to the tune of Sh3 billion ahead of the August General Election.

The amount could even be much higher if all political parties apply for Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) support to manage their primaries.

Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury Henry Rotich on Friday told the Nation that the Treasury will deal with the matter depending on the availability of the budget and the support of the statutes.

“We have not started talking about it yet because we don’t have a budget. Even when there is money, there must be legal apparatus to support the idea. Otherwise they have the political parties fund to rely on for such issues,” said Mr Rotich.

He said that his office will wait for proposals from IEBC on nomination funding and act subject to availability of resources and legal support.

IEBC chief executive Ezra Chiloba, however, said that the commission was waiting for the law allowing it to manage political party primaries to be firmed.

FUNDING POLITICAL PARTIES

“The law on funding parties is part of the amendments passed by the National Assembly and the Senate,” Mr Chiloba said.

He noted that the full details of how much it will cost, which depends on individual parties, will come after the number of candidates participating is established.

ODM has so far recorded close to 4,000 aspirants seeking the party’s tickets to contest for various seats while about 3,000 people have expressed interest to run on the Jubilee ticket.

Already, the Jubilee Party has indicated it will ask the IEBC to conduct their nominations for purposes of delivering a free and fair process.

“We will ask the IEBC to seek funds from the Treasury to conduct our nominations. We will be making the applications once we set up our Elections Board,” said Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi.

Mr Murungi said any other party interested in such support would be free to do so.

JUBILEE PARTY PRIMARIES

On Friday, ODM National Elections Board chairperson Judy Pareno wondered where the government was going to get money to fund the Jubilee Party primaries.

“It will be interesting to see where they are going to find the money when they can’t pay doctors and everybody in the medical fraternity, something that has caused deaths and pain," Ms Pareno said.

Mr Murungi also explained that the new party was yet to set its nomination fee adding that candidates are paying at the moment was an expression of interests’ fee.

“When we establish an Election Board they will then determine what each candidate will pay to run for a specific seat. What you are seeing is just an expression of interest no nomination fees yet, “the senator said.

Candidates running for governorship have been asked to pay Sh100, 000, Senators Sh 50,000, MPs and Women Representatives Sh30,000

She said that if the government will find money for Jubilee nominations then this should apply for all parties.