Uhuru, Raila face acid test in sharing of political parties’ cash

President Uhuru and Raila Odinga

By WAINAINA NDUNG’U AND KEVIN OMOLLO

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee coalition and the opposition Cord coalition led by Raila Odinga face an acid test in how they handle the millions of shillings their parties got from the Government.

President Uhuru’s TNA has been allocated Sh89.3 million, ODM will get Sh87.4 million while Deputy President William Ruto’s URP will get Sh28.2 million.

The calculations were done under conditions stipulated by the Political Parties Act which says that a political party must have garnered at least five per cent of the total votes cast to first qualify to be funded. The amount it will be allocated will depend on the total percentage of the votes garnered by the party for all electable positions.

But the hard question on every political observer’s lips is whether the main parties in the coalition will keep all the money for themselves or they would share it with those who supported them during the elections. TNA Chairman Johnson Sakaja indicated during a forum on state of political parties and election campaign financing that the party will share the money with other parties with whom they had signed a pre-election agreement.

According to political analysts, former Vice President’s Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper party, which has more than 20 MPs, four governors and four senators is the biggest loser. Even though Wiper together with Ford Kenya parties helped garner votes for ODM since supporters of the two parties voted for Raila Odinga as president, they did not qualify for funding. The MP for Matungulu Mr Stephen Mule said the formula used is very unfair.

He said the issue is being handled at the NEC level and the party chairman Senator David Musila would be the best person to say what action would be taken.

“But for me the ball is in ODM’s court. It has to decide on how to share the money with the other parties,” said Mule.

Interviews with Ford Kenya officials revealed that talks are going on to chart out how the funds given to ODM can be shared with the other coalition members.

Ford Kenya Executive Director Steven Namashule said a technical committee comprising members from the three major parties, ODM, Wiper and Ford Kenya had been formed to look into the mater.

“All these parties are entitled to a share because we hugely contributed to the presidential votes which enabled ODM to get more money,” said Namashule.

He said parties that moved out of the coalition after the elections will however not get a share.

He however said the coalition has petitioned the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to rework the vote tally saying more than the three parties attained the five per cent requirement.

“Wiper for example surpassed the requirement and it is entitled to a share so the money will not be disbursed until IEBC makes all the necessary corrections,” he added.

He said once the corrections have been made, leaders of the coalition will sit down and discuss an amicable way to forge ahead.

An ODM MP confirmed that negotiations were going on to establish how the money would be shared among the parties.

“Such talks are there but it is still not clear as there are people within the party who are opposed to it,” said the MP.

He said the coalition is organising a retreat for its governors, senators and members of the National Assembly next week and the issue could be on the agenda.

Smaller political parties are already up in arms against the decision to deny them State funding saying that it would be a sure way of killing them.

DP secretary General Jacob Haji said it was not democratic to deny small parties the funding especially if they had participated in the last General Elections.

“Only three parties may be able to compete in the next elections,” Haji is quoted as having told a local media house.

The allocations are based on the total number of votes for all electable seats cast for the party candidates and the three parties are the only ones that fulfilled the legal requirements of garnering at least five percent of the vote cast.

The smaller political parties had gone to court seeking that they be regarded as parties but their plea was rejected last Monday by High Court judge David Majanja who pointed out that the remedy might be seeking the amendment of the Political Parties Act in Parliament.

Now the small parties such as APK which were under the Jubilee Coalition worry that the situation could be used to kill them off or coerce them to join the three large parties.

“It is going to be nothing short of a political dictatorship in favour of the three large political parties,” said Alhaji Mwendia, a National Governing Council member in the Alliance Party of Kenya (APK).

“Bearing in mind that there has been pressure to merge with the larger parties, the fund will definitely be used to arm-twist smaller parties,” he added.

The APK official said while top leaders of smaller parties such as his might be forced to continue bankrolling their operations, it will definitely be a tall order to maintain functional offices in at least 24 counties as required by the law.

“Anybody could therefore petition the court to dissolve these parties on the basis that they were not complying with the law, a fact that could trigger multiple by-elections and eventually a constitutional crisis if others challenged the legality of the coalition they were part of,” said Mwendia.

He says funding only the bigger parties will have an indirect result of crippling fledging parties.

He says although the smaller parties are trying to negotiate the sharing of the kitty with their senior coalition partners, the interest of the latter is to see the former wither and die.

Additional reports by Erastus Mulwa