ODM has suffered a major financial
hurdle days before its much-hyped
grassroots elections.
The party is scheduled to hold ward
elections across the country today and
later at a majority of the 290 constituencies - for the branch leaders - from
Wednesday.
These grassroots polls are seen as a
critical step in reorganising the party’s
internal structure ahead of the 2027
general election.
But the office of the Registrar of
Political Parties has communicated
to the outfit about a major funding
slash – a move likely to affect key
party’s activities.
ODM will thus not get Sh42 million from its initial budget, with the
ORPP saying only Sh256 million will
be available instead of the Sh298 million the party expected.
Party stalwarts say they were relying on the millions to help in logistical
preparations for the national exercise.
The funding slash to political parties has impacted several outfits — but
more so ODM, which relies heavily
on these funds to run its vast political
machinery.
Registrar Ann Nderitu on Friday
delivered the bombshell informing
the party to expect less from what
they were initially entitled to.
“This is to inform that the Political
Parties Fund budget has been revised
through supplementary estimates No
2 of FY2024-25 from the earlier allocation of Sh1.4 billion to a revised
allocation of Sh1.2 billion, hence a
reduction of Sh200 million,” she said
in a letter to ODM secretary general
Edwin Sifuna dated April1.
“Based on the revised allocation
and taking into consideration that
Sh223,749,984 has already been
disbursed to your party up to the
third-quarter of the FY 2024-25,
the balance of Sh32,808,725 will be
disbursed in the fourth quarter once
received from the National Treasury.”
The development came at a time the
party’s delegates across the country
are gearing up for the delicate exercise, which has in the past ended
up in chaos.
On Saturday, ODM leader Raila
Odinga urged party delegates to uphold decorum during the grassroots
elections.
He made the remarks during his
address to the party’s faithful’s at an
Eid Baraza function in Mombasa.
“When you conduct the party’s elections, I want them to be friendly and
peaceful because this is your party. Do
not shove your brother or fight anybody. We are all brothers and whoever gets elected is your brother and
a member of our party,” Raila said.
On Friday, ODM’s National
Elections Coordinating Committee
(NECC) chairperson Emily Awita suspended elections in Embakasi East
constituency over what she linked
to numerous complaints from supporters.
“NECC has received a significant
number of complaints from Embakasi
East constituency. In order to address
these concerns adequately, the elections scheduled for Monday, April 7
and Wednesday, April 9, in respect
of Embakasi East constituency are
hereby suspended,” Awita said in a
statement.
Embakasi East represented in Parliament by Babu Owino now joins
seven other electoral units where
elections will not be held.
The others are Dagoretti North,
Dagoretti South, Embakasi West,
Kwale, Taita Taveta, Matayos and
Nyando.
In the exercise, 77 party officials
will be elected at subbranch and
branch levels across the four committees – mainstream, women’s league,
youth league and disability league.
In the mainstream, the positions up
for grabs include chairperson, deputy
chairperson, secretary, deputy secretary, treasurer, deputy treasurer,
organising secretary and his deputy.
