ODM party has come out to lament over a large sum of money amounting to five billion Kenyan shillings owed by the government of Kenya since the year 2013.
The party through its secretary general Edwin Sifuna told a local media house that they did not have the money and it was not easy to fund the offices. The party claims it is entitled to Sh1 billion from the Political Parties Fund but only receives Sh120 million per month.”This is like a drop in the ocean and too little to make an impact. We are starved of funds that we are entitled to by the National Treasury. We don’t know why,” claimed Sifuna.
And as this happens, here is the full information on how much each political party in Kenya gets from the national government. 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 percent of the national revenue to share so as to entrench democracy. According to the Act, 80 percent of the Fund is to be distributed proportionately, considering the total number of votes garnered by each political party in the preceding General Election.
The rule states that 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.
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 percent 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 percent 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 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.