Azimio affiliates demand release of political parties fund

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition affiliate parties are now calling on the government to release funds meant to support the programs of political parties.

Led by ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna and his Jubilee counterpart Jeremiah Kioni, the parties are accusing the Executive of sitting on the funds despite a court directive to have the political parties paid.

According to Sifuna, the Registrar of Political Parties has confirmed that the National Treasury is purposefully holding onto the money meant to be shared between the various affiliate parties.

He claimed that their operations are crippled countrywide as a result of a funding deficit which he strongly intimated is a deliberate plan by the State.

He castigated the President William Ruto-led administration for what he termed as pretending to be pushing for a stronger opposition in the country yet the purpoted watch dog team is underfunded.

"We, as Secretary Generals of the qualified parties, had a meeting with the Registrar of Political Parties. She has confirmed that the Treasury has refused to disburse money to the political parties," said Sifuna.

"When the President says he expects a very robust opposition, he is lying to Kenyans because his actions are directed towards ensuring that he cripples political opposition parties."

His sentiments were shared by Kioni who noted that the Registrar of Political Parties had yet to release the funds despite a December decree from the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal.  

"To date, the 48 qualifying parties have not received the first, second and third quarter funding even after the Political Parties Discipline Tribunal, on December 6, 2022, directed the Registrar of Political Parties to release the first quarter funding covering the period between July and September 2022 to all qualified parties pending the determination of the UDA application for a review of allocation formula," said Kioni.

The Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu, a gazette notice dated November 2, 2022, allocated Ksh.1.475 billion to 48 political parties for the financial year 2022/2023.

President Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party emerged top with an allocation of Ksh.577,162,898, followed by Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) which was to receive Ksh.308,260,679.

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party came third with Ksh.135,113,518, then Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper (Ksh.72,110,017), DAP-K (Ksh.31,642,281), UDM (Ksh.26,897,846), ANC (Ksh.26,600,684), and Ford-Kenya (Ksh.25,863,869).

The Political Parties Tribunal later however issued orders staying the Registrar of Political Parties' gazette notice on the distribution of the fund to the qualifying political parties.

This after the President Ruto-led UDA party moved to the tribunal to challenge the gazette notice on grounds that the Registrar of Political Parties failed to disclose the formula used in distributing the funds.

Through lawyer Adrian Kamotho, UDA claimed that the Registrar miscalculated the total number of votes garnered by qualifying parties in the General Election held on 9th August 2022, in regard to the election of the President, Members of Parliament, County Governors and Member of County Assemblies.

The UDA party claimed that it had been unlawfully deprived of funds in excess of Ksh.115 million that it is rightfully entitled to, hence jeopardizing its activities and operations.