Registrar: Slashing parties fund will erode democracy

Nderitu said political parties are the cornerstone of Kenya’s democracy and destabilizing them by reducing their funding will not auger well for development in the country.

“In the developed nations, political parties are funded. And because we are a growing democracy, we ask the Kenyan government to continue funding the political parties and in fact, it (the funding) should be increased so as to get to 0.3 per cent,” said Nderitu.

She spoke on Friday in Mombasa while opening the new Office of the Registrar of Political Parties at Jubilee Building along Moi Avenue.

This comes as the government mulls over reviewing the funding model of the political parties with a view to scaling it down saying the current model is unsustainable.

According to the Political Parties Act, 0.3 per cent of all party-generated revenues should be given to political parties.

However, National Treasury records show that the government owes political parties Sh30 billion.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Prof Njuguna Ndungu told Parliament the state will soon propose radical changes to the Political Parties Act to review the political parties funding model.

The CS said complying with the 0.3 per cent requirement will hurt the critical functions of the two levels of government.

“It is our considered opinion that the provisions of the Political Parties Act in its current form are not feasible to implement without adversely affecting other operations of the National and county governments,” Njuguna said.

“In this regard, we may consider proposing amendments to the Act to ensure a sustainable funding model for political parties.”

On Friday, Nderitu, who also met different political party representatives at the new office opening ceremony, acknowledged that the economy is not doing as well as it should be at the moment but insisted there be a mechanism to gradually increase the funding for political parties over a period of time instead of reducing it.

“I thank the government for their continued support for the political parties fund and our office so that the parties continue to grow,” Nderitu said.

She said Kenyans must protect democracy reminding the country that the country has moved from a one-party state to a multi-party democracy through the repealing of Section 2A of the constitution.

“Democracy means everyone has an opinion which should be listened to and that the one that is acceptable by the majority is the one that is picked,” Nderitu said.

The proposal to scale down political parties funding was met with consternation in Mombasa with most of the parties at the meeting opposing the proposal.

Media Council of Kenya Coast regional coordinator Maureen Mudi said political parties must protect journalists while covering their functions.

She said journalists sometimes lose their items while covering political party functions because of rivalry between political parties which has nothing to do with journalists.

“Political parties must create a safe environment for journalists to work in. Sometimes journalists fall victim to party rivalry,” she said.

Umoja Summit Party of Kenya national chairman Matano Chengo said the proposal is a dirty scheme to kill small parties and take Kenya back to the one-party rule.

“They want to kill parties. We must start lobbying now. This is nothing but a government ploy to kill the small parties,” Chengo said.

He said already, most of the small parties get insufficient funds from the government which cannot sustain the party for a full year.

“Some parties get Sh300,000 in a year. What is that? This cannot even sustain the party offices for three months. It is simply not enough. What if they further reduce the funding? Someone wants to take us back to the one-party system. We will not accept that,” Chengo said.

At least 28 of the 90 political parties in the county have offices at the Coast, according to Nderitu.

She told the Coast people to be more active in the country’s political scene and urged women, youth and persons living with disabilities to be actively involved in politics in Mombasa.

For instance, in the 2022 general elections, Mombasa had 497 candidates.

Out of these, 409 were men while a paltry 87 were women. Only five of the candidates were PWDs.

“Those under 35 years of age were 92, while over 403 were above 35 years bold,” Nderitu said.