Political parties in members registration fraud saga

Political parties may have breached the Elections Act by fraudulently registering ‘party members’ without their knowledge.

A number of Kenyans have used micro-blogging site Twitter  via the hashtag  #FakePartyMembersKe to express outrage of being registered as members of political parties without their consent. Users of the social media site raised concern after finding out from the IEBC website that they had been listed as members of different political parties without their knowledge.

Last year, the Political parties’ registrar had written to all registered political parties warning them that “ any political party which recruits members in a fraudulent manner or falsifies any information presented to her shall be liable to deregistration”.

Yesterday, Marakwet East MP Linah Kilimo accused URP of unlawfully transferring her supporters from TNA to the party. “URP has breached the law, how can all my supporters who were members of TNA including even my bodyguard became members of URP?” Kilimo said. She added that she would be seeking legal action against William Ruto and URP for what she termed as “selfish interests”.

The fraudulent registration has possibly been occasioned by IEBC's requirement of political parties to have at least 1000 members in 24 of the 47 counties to be considered as national political parties. Find out here whether you are registered to any political party.