By STEPHEN MAKABILA

Political parties are now on the spotlight over low public confidence they enjoy.

Even after the bruising exercise of complying with the new Political Parties Act (PPA) by April 30, and with only six months for them to carry out internal nominations in readiness for the transitional General Election in March, the public’s confidence in these parties stand below par.

According to the latest Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation report dated June 14, people’s confidence in political parties is relatively low at 40 per cent compared to other institutions such as the police 43 per cent and the Judiciary at 67 per cent.

Ironically still, the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission, which is to organise and conduct the coming elections in which parties will compete in, enjoys a high confidence among Kenyans at 80 per cent, only second to the media which tops public confidence at 90 per cent.

Emerging question
“The parties are rated even lower than the police, implying that people are dissatisfied with the ‘business as usual’ attitude of the political parties,” reads the report by Southern Consulting in part.

The report further notes, “Although IEBC is institutionally preparing for the next elections, it is not in control of the entire electoral environment because other actors remain independent of the IEBC. Clearly, political parties are not prepared for a credible and transparent election; they are weak and are yet to organise.”

South Consulting is the research firm designated by the Panel of Eminent African Personalities chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to undertake independent monitoring and evaluation of the KNDR implementation process.

The emerging question is why this low confidence in political parties, which, according to the Centre for Multi-Party Democracy, chairman Justin Muturi, are supposed to be institutions of public governance especially after operationalisation of PPA.

Under the Act, political parties are funded by the State and are supposed to be ran professionally, and in turn win public confidence. But after the close of the PPA compliance in April, figures from the office of the registrar showed only slightly more than two million Kenyans registered as parties’ members out of 12 million registered voters.

Fraudulent records
Kenya has 46 fully registered political parties according to the Registrar of Political Parties. Each party had to register at least 24,000 members to get the compliance certificate. ODM led with about 78,000 members.

Currently, most of the parties are in the field recruiting members ahead of the fresh voter registration which kicks off August, where over 16 million voters are to be registered afresh.

Even as they recruit, Registrar Lucy Ndung’u has, however, warned those who may have registered members in a fraudulent manner or have falsified information presented to her office to remedy the breach or face deregistration and a fine of not less than Sh1 million under section 46 of the PPA.

There have been complaints that some parties enlisted members from mobile money transfer records.

Parties had also two months from the day they received their compliance certificates to file statements on assets and expenditure.

Narc-Kenya was to file on May 23 while other parties have datelines ranging from June to August.
Some of the key parties currently with parliamentary representation include ODM, PNU, Wiper Democratic Party (formerly ODM-K), Kanu, Ford-Kenya, New Ford-Kenya and UDM.

There are, however, new parties that are also causing ripples across the political divide, among them The National Alliance, United Republican Party and the United Democratic Forum.

According to the KNDR report, lack of effective enforcement of the law is leading to perceptions of ‘business as usual’ in political practice.

“Politicians appear not to recognise the need to change in line with the new electoral laws. Unless the law is effectively enforced, parties will not grow as institutions to contribute to the democratic governance,” reads the report in part.

On the other hand, the trust and high level of confidence in the IEBC emanates from how the commission was established. The commissioners were hired through a competitive process and the relevant committee of Parliament vetted them.

Too early to judge
Federal Party of Kenya chair Kizito Temba argues before the parties Act came into place, there was lack of institutional framework to ensure order in the way parties were managed.

“With the PPA in place, we have regulation and with time parties are going to win the confidence of the public,” he added.

UDM Secretary-General Martin ole Kamwaro say it’s too early to judge parties because “its only less than two months after compliance and that serious parties would boost membership and win public confidence” with time.

Prof Munene Macharia, a lecturer at United States International University, says most parties are viewed as personal properties and that none qualifies to be a mass-movement that can win confidence of the public.

Manifestoes’ factor
“Political leaders mobilise party support along ethnic lines and its not, therefore, easy for a party to have appeal across the country,” added the professor of History and International Relations.

Ford-Kenya Executive Director Stephen Namusyule says election manifestoes are likely to boost the confidence of Kenyans in political parties.

“For us, we have already developed a five-pillar manifesto to be approved by the party’s National Executive Council soon.

Apart from Ford-Kenya, UDF has also developed its manifesto while Prime Minister Raila Odinga hinted his party would soon launch its own.

However, political observers have been quick to note the voting pattern in the country are ethnic driven, and that manifestoes may do little to change fortunes of leading parties.