Jubilee to get largest share of parties’ fund

Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju speaks during an interview at the party's headquarters in Nairobi on September 12, 2017. The party has more representation in Parliament. PHOTO | KANYIRI WAHITO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Qualifying political parties should be given 0.3 per cent of the national revenue to share so as to entrench democracy.
  • In 2016, ODM went to court seeking orders to compel the National Treasury to adhere to the 0.3 per cent rule.

Jubilee will get the lion’s share of the Political Parties Fund cash, amid protests from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) that the monies have not been distributed in accordance with the law in the past five years.

In the 2017/2018 financial year, political parties were allocated Sh371.2 million by Parliament.

According to the Political Parties Act, qualifying political parties should be given 0.3 per cent of the national revenue to share so as to entrench democracy.

According to the Act, 80 per cent of the Fund is to be distributed proportionately, considering the total number of votes garnered by each political party in the preceding General Election.

DEBT
Parties that do not qualify are those that “do not secure at least three per cent of the total number of votes at the preceding General Election; or if more than two-thirds of its registered office bearers are of the same gender and the party does not have, in its governing body, representation of special interest groups”.

In addition, any party that does not have at least 20 elected members of the National Assembly, three elected members of the Senate, three elected members who are governors and 40 members of county assemblies, also stand to miss out on the cash.

Therefore, as per the law, only Jubilee and ODM qualify to deep their fingers into the Fund’s coffers.

The ODM maintains that it is still owed at least Sh5 billion by the Fund in unpaid monies since 2013.

TREASURY
The party’s Director of Elections and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed says the Fund must adhere to the High Court ruling issued in October last year on distribution of the money.

“Parliament and National Treasury must now implement what they ignored for the past five years,” he says.

In 2016, ODM went to court seeking orders to compel the National Treasury to adhere to the 0.3 per cent rule.

Justice Roselyne Aburili directed that the National Assembly adheres to the established formula.

“The Cabinet Secretary of the National Treasury is hereby ordered to ensure that in each financial year, the National Treasury shall make budgetary proposals and estimates that reflect the allocation of not less than 0.3 per cent of the national revenue collected to be due to the Political Parties Fund.”

She directed that the orders issued On October 2017 take effect from the 2018/2019 financial year.

In court, ODM had argued that following the 2013 General Election, it was entitled to at least 40 per cent of the Fund.

COURT CASE
The party argued that the total revenue collected by the national government for the years 2012/2013; 2013/2014; 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 financial years was approximately Sh4,284,478,321.

Hence, in accordance with the Act, at least Sh12,853,436,185.00, being 0.3 per cent of the national revenue, ought to have been disbursed to the Political Parties Fund for distribution to political parties, of which it would have been entitled to receive 40 per cent for the said period.

The ODM alleged that contrary to the Act, it had received only Sh501,575,919 as of 2016, leaving an outstanding amount of Sh4,135,903,545 based on the total national revenue collected.

The National Treasury, through the Attorney General, opposed the suit, stating that the prayers “sought were based on contradictory allegations, which border on mere belief, suspicion and speculations, and hence incapable of any Judicial Review determination”.

NASA SHARING
The Registrar of Political Parties did not dispute ODM’s case, only stating that the office does not have statutory or constitutional duty to allocate and appropriate funds to the Political Parties Fund.

Jubilee Secretary-General Raphael Tuju said the party is yet to get information on how the current allocation will be shared.

“Any question can only be answered by the Registrar of Political Parties,” he said.

Mr Junet however states that the Nasa coalition agreement does not obligate ODM to share monies drawn from the fund with its coalition partners, including Wiper, ANC and Ford Kenya, which do not qualify for the funds.

“We did not agree on how to share the Fund during our pre-election agreement. That was to be done as part of post-election agreements,” he said.