President William Ruto’s UDA and opposition chief Raila Odinga’s ODM are among the biggest losers in budget cuts that affect key government departments, including the Political Parties Fund.
In an unprecedented move, the two big political parties have shed millions in the revised allocations compared to what they were allocated in the last financial year.
Collectively, the 48 political outfits that are beneficiaries of the fund have lost about Sh900 million to the budget cuts.
In the 2023-24 financial year, the kitty suffered a cut of Sh867 million reducing the allocation to Sh608.3 million.
This constitutes more than half of the initial total allocation to the political parties.
Initially, the fund was allocated Sh1.4 billion.
As a result of the reduction, the Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu has issued a fresh gazette notice on how the parties will now share the remaining Sh608 million.
The notice dated January 3, 2024, indicates the President's party will receive Sh237 million in the 2023-24 financial year.
Raila’s ODM will receive Sh127 million, according to the new allocations.
In the last allocation, the ruling party was allocated more than Sh577 million from the fund while ODM was given slightly more than Sh308 million.
UDA will lose Sh340 million while ODM will part with Sh181 million in the revised figures.
According to Nderitu, the slash in the allocation to parties is necessitated by the reduction in funding.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by sections 23, 25 and 34 (b) of the Political Parties Act, 2011, and Regulation 6 (c) of the Political Parties (Funding) Regulations 2019, the Registrar of Political parties gives notice that Political Parties Fund (PPF) faced budget cut during supplementary estimates No.1 of FY 2023-2024 which has necessitated review of the distribution of the fund,” Nderitu said in the notice.
The former ruling Jubilee Party will take home Sh55 million down from Sh135 million, while ex-Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Party has been allocated Sh29 million from Sh72 million.
ANC and Ford Kenya will receive Sh10 million each. In the last budget, they were allocated Sh26 million and Sh25 million respectively.
The DAP-K associated with Eugene Wamalwa will now receive Sh13 million. It was earlier allocated Sh31 million.
Kanu, UDM, TSP and Maendeleo Chap Chap will receive Sh9 million, Sh11 million, Sh4 million and Sh5 million respectively.
ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna claimed the cuts are a deliberate move by Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza administration to cripple the operations of political parties.
“This is a clear demonstration of the regime’s intent to cripple all key institutions of democracy from Parliament to the Judiciary to the political parties. We shall however not wait on the benevolence of our tormentors. We shall trudge on as we know they intend to stall our activities and operations and return the country to a single-party dictatorship,” Sifuna said.
“We note, however, the difficult operating environment for political parties with the regime's continued onslaught on funding for political parties. In its very first supplementary budget in September 2023, the regime cut funds allocated to parties by over 60 per cent. This year the onslaught has continued with further cuts.”
The Nairobi senator said the underfunding of parties will lead to the death of most of them as the majority of the outfits depend on the cash for everyday operations.
This is not the first time the fund has been raided by the government. In 2022-23, the fund was reduced by Sh590.6 million, cutting down the allocation to Sh884.3 million.
MDG party leader David Ochieng’ on his part told the Star that the cut has a bigger implication, especially for smaller parties.
He however stated that the cuts will be recovered during the next supplementary budget.
“What we were told is that come next supplementary budget they will bring back the money, so we are waiting to see if the government is sincere on that issue,” the Ugenya MP said on the phone.
“We want to ask all those concerned to prioritise that [increasing allocation in the second supplementary budget].”
From the Gazette Notice Narc-Kenya will get Sh3 million, PICK Sh362,324, Devolution Empowerment Party Sh5 million, KNC Sh763,494, DP Sh2.2 million, PNU Sh1.8 million, KSC Sh501,597, PPOK Sh1.2 million, Maendeleo Democratic Party Sh239,857 and NARC Sh2.1 million.
Kadu Asili will get Sh197,761, CPK Sh431,614, Safina Sh1.2 million, CCU Sh1.6 million, NAP-K Sh921,836, PEP Sh344,946, PDP Sh327,567, Shirikisho Party Sh283,103, UPIA Sh3.7 million, FPK Sh518,465, Muungano Sh2.7 million, CCM Sh3.3 million, Ubuntu Sh823,939, UDP Sh2.2 million and People Trust Party Sh347,326.
According to the notice, MDG is allocated Sh4 million, Justice and Freedom Sh114,149, Grand Dream Development Sh192,319, UPA Sh3.5 million, NOPEU Sh557,396, NRA Sh1.4 million, Chama Cha Kazi Sh2.6 million, Jibebe Sh3.1 million, KUP Sh3.9 million, PAA Sh4.7 million, Mabadiliko Party Sh262,992 and Green Thinking Action Party Sh240,106.
Last month, National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wa defended the cuts saying the decision has enabled the government to respond to some pressing emergencies.
Speaking in Parliament, the Kikuyu MP said the government's focus is on reducing the cost of living, which cannot be achieved by increasing political parties’ allocations.
“I support what this House did - removing money from the Political Parties Fund and taking it to the people of Northern Kenya, who are living without food and medicines after being cut out by floods,” Ichung’wah said.
“It is the height of irresponsibility on the part of the leadership of this country to ask for money to buy bread, tea and mandazis at some place in Lavington or Capital Hill at the expense of Kenyans yet when they speak at funerals, they tell us that the cost of living is high,” he said.
“How do you bring down the cost of living by putting money in the Political Parties Fund to fund your political activities?”
Political parties depend on the funding to operate offices across the country and this has the potential of crippling the outfits, which by law must have offices in at least half the counties.
According to the ODM's Sifuna, with the reduction of the fund political parties will immensely be deprived of the resources to fund programmes and activities contained in their respective work plans.
The Orange party insisted that such decisions should not be made without consultation with the political parties.
The party said the fund was created to advance democracy and promote the inclusion of the marginalised into party representation and managing administrative duties among other key activities.