Dormant parties wait to cash in on aspirants' fees

With only 18 months to the next general election, briefcase political parties are waiting to cash in on prospective aspirants.

Records from the Registrar of Political Parties indicate that there are only 62 fully registered political parties with just two having been registered since the last polls.

The new parties are Amani National Coalition and Citizen Conventions Party.

Apart from the 27 political parties that have representation in elective positions, at least 35 others are dormant with little or no activities.

Political parties without representation now offer an alternative to various aspirants as the countdown to the August 2017 polls continues.

Only Orange Democratic Movement led by Raila Odinga and Baringo Senator Gideon Moi's Kenya Africa National Union have held elections as required by law. The others still have the same office holders they had in 2012.

Others have become more of individual outfits and do not represent the ideologies and policies that address the people's concerns.

Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto has realigned himself with the Mashinani Development Party whose name is claimed to have been changed from People's Patriotic Party of Kenya. Mashinani Development Party is weighing its options to field a candidate in the Kericho senatorial by-election.

Party constitution

This is the same situation with the Conservation Party, which was converted to Jubilee Party which sponsored Kabete MP Ferdinand Waititu to Parliament following the demise of George Muchai.

But Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung'u Sunday explained that her office is well informed of the activities each political party is engaged in.

"Parties have their own Constitution which they should uphold. As far as I'm concerned they are not dormant," Ms Ndung'u said.

She said there are a number of requests for registration of political parties, which are being considered.

"We have received a number of applications and we are still working on them. Since 2013 only two political parties have been registered. They were registered last year in accordance with the Political parties Act," she said.

Ndung'u did not disclose the number of applications received so far.

For a party to be registered, it should have 1,000 registered members in at least 24 counties and to have opened physical offices and paid Sh500,000 for the registration.