Season of plenty for parties as aspirants pay for tickets

 

IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati addresses the press in the presence of IEBC commissioners in Naivasha on January 7, 2022.[File, Standard]

It’s Christmas for top officials of political parties who are poised to rake in millions of shillings from aspirants eyeing the 1,880 seats in the August 9 General Election.

A political party with aspirants spread across the country is likely to make a minimum Sh500 million if it attracts three candidates for each post and charges a uniform fee of Sh50,000.

On Tuesday, Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party invited aspirants to pay for the seats they will be vying for ahead of party primaries expected to end in April.

In an advert in the local dailies, a presidential aspirant will pay Sh1 million for the party ticket while those eyeing the governor’s seats will fork out Sh500,000 to participate in the primaries.

UDA Communication Director Wanjohi Githae said thousands of aspirants have shown interest in securing the party ticket for various positions. “The names are still coming up. At the moment we have over 8,000 and the number could go up in the next one month.”

In 2017, Jubilee Party charged Sh400,000 for the governor’s seat, while ODM charged Sh500,000. For the Senate seat, both parties asked aspirants to pay Sh250,000.

Jubilee cleared 7,893 aspirants, including 107 candidates for governorship, 156 for the Senate, 1,154 for MP and 6,476 MCA hopefuls. At the end of the process, the party made more than Sh700 million in nomination fees.

ODM party had more than 6,000 aspirants for governor, Senate, MP and MCA seats, Wiper (1,426), Ford Kenya (1,819), and ANC (1,600). ODM made more than Sh500 million from nomination fees, Wiper (Sh117 million), Ford Kenya (Sh134 million) and Kanu, which had more than 1,061 aspirants, raised Sh62 million.

Maendeleo Chap Chap received 1,400 aspirants while Party of National Unity had 936 aspirants who paid Sh36.8 million. Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto’s Chama Cha Mashinani received Sh19.6 million from more than 200 aspirants in the 2017 nomination.

This year, UDA contestants for MP will pay Sh250,000, Woman Rep aspirants will pay Sh125,000 while Members of County Assembly will part with Sh50,000. People living with disabilities will not be charged.

The party is also giving a 50 per cent discount to women.

Two weeks ago, Independent, Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati said political parties are required to have submitted names of aspirants for nominations by Wednesday, and the primaries must be complete by April 26.

Yesterday, ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna said the party has not advertised for the different electoral posts and therefore they don’t know how many aspirants will apply and pay up.