Politicians rush to pay party membership fees as they seek re-election

By Rawlings Otieno and Kepher Otieno | 7yrs ago

Politicians seeking re-election and those seeking to unseat them in the August 8 elections are rushing to update their party membership subscription fees.

Parties that are owed millions of shillings threaten to lock defaulters out of nominations.

The pay-up warning came as details of returns filed by parties with the Registrar of Parties revealed the millions of shillings each of the mainstream parties receive from taxpayers, how they spend the cash and their wealth profile in terms of assets.

ODM's defaulters in particular have to raise close to Sh50 million in two weeks to beat the November 30 deadline to submit their applications.

Yesterday, ODM chairman John Mbadi (Suba MP) revealed that some MPs owed the party Sh15 million and MCAs over Sh30 million. He warned that if they failed to pay the arrears, they would be barred from participating in the party's primaries that begin in February next year.

"These payments are clearly stipulated in the Political Parties Act and failure to pay up amounts to disciplinary action by the Political Parties Tribunal Board. We cannot accept people to use our name and popularity to win seats and once they rise to the pinnacle of power, they switch allegiance to other parties and abandon our train. They must pay," Mr Mbadi said.

"We are waiting to catch them at the nominations when they will be rushing for party clearance. If you owe the party, you won't be cleared to contest on its ticket," he added.

ODM party leader Raila Odinga had told defaulters to pay up or face severe penalties.

The party's National Elections Board invited aspirants to submit their applications this month but warned those with arrears to clear them first.

ODM's financial returns in June indicated the party was owed Sh138.6 million by members. This means that in four months about Sh90 million has since been paid.

Part of the payments could also have come from so-called 'rebel' leaders who rushed to update their accounts with the party to pre-empt action by the disciplinary committee following charges of association with Jubilee. Ten rebel governors and MPs have since been expelled.

Interestingly, the Members of the National Assembly and Senators in arrears include some of Raila's close allies.

ODM disciplinary Committee chairman Fred Athuok explained that he legally advised the party to write to the defaulters to allow them offset the dues through a check-off system.

"This was one of my recommendations in the report on taking actions on rebel party MPs. I told them to write a show-cause letter why they were hesitant to pay, " Mr Athuok said.

The party's rules require that each MP pays Sh20,000 per month while governors pay Sh50,000. MCAs pay Sh5,000 per month. The money is used to fund the party's day-to-day operations and pay staff at the secretariat.

The Standard learned from some of the MCAs in Kisumu that a majority were defaulting because of the heavy loan repayments.

"We are desperately looking for every available opportunity to make money and pay the subscription. This is why we have lobbied the assembly to increase the number and frequency of committee meetings," revealed one MCA.

Financial returns of United Republican Party, which is among 13 that merged into Jubilee Party, show that it is owed Sh41.2 million by members.

The law stipulates that assets and liabilities of dissolved parties be inherited by the new Jubilee Party, which means those who have defaulted will be locked out.

ODM, the defunct The National Alliance and URP were among the wealthiest political parties as at June 30, 2016. Documents of the audited accounts for the financial year ending June 30, indicated that ODM's total income for 2015-2016 was Sh353.4 million, TNA Sh182.7 million, URP Sh100.6 million while Ford Kenya raked in Sh7.8 million.

Although ODM received Sh353 million as income, members had accumulated Sh138.6 million in outstanding arrears.

The defunct TNA party received Sh158.9 million from the Political Parties Fund, contribution from members Sh21.4 million and membership fee Sh2.3 million.

According to the filing in June by URP's Executive Director David Koech, the party in the 2015-16 financial year received Sh50.8 million from the office of the Registrar of Political Parties and Sh19.7 million from TNA.

"The total income was expected at Sh100.6 million that we received in the financial period 2015-2016 compared to expected income amount of Sh98.7 million in the previous year. However, the outstanding amount from members contribution is at Sh41.2 million, an amount we endeavour to collect within this current year," reads part of Mr Koech's report.

party policy

Records indicated that URP spent Sh84 million on grassroots expenses, employee costs, depreciation amortisation expense and administrative expenses, while ODM spent Sh236.5 million on branch and co-ordination support, campaign expenses, civic education, conference and meetings, party policy and advocacy and administrative expenses.

ODM's income came from the political parties fund Sh139.6 million, members contribution Sh98.1 million and life membership fee stood at Sh6.7 million.

The audited accounts from the Registrar of Political Parties indicate that President Uhuru Kenyatta's former party TNA spent Sh178.9 million on administrative costs, operating costs, secretariat staff and executive costs and depreciation.

And of the Sh178.9 million, the bulk of their expenditure was on operating costs at Sh127.8 million followed by secretariat staff and executive costs at Sh33.8 million, administrative costs Sh11.8 million and depreciation at Sh5 million respectively.

Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang'ula-led Ford Kenya received Sh7.8 million and only spent Sh5.6 million on advertising, publicity and rallies. Some Sh1.4 million went to administrative expenses.