ODM wins big in Nasa funds row
The Registrar of Political Parties, Ms Ann Nderitu.
Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu now says the National Super Alliance (Nasa) parties will be required to renegotiate their coalition agreement if they have to stake any claim to the political parties funding that their Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) affiliate gets.
The comments by Ms Nderitu, who appeared before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), effectively dims any hope by Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Democratic Movement, Moses Wetang’ula’s Ford Kenya and Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress of accessing the parties’ fund. The three parties joined forces with ODM to support its leader Raila Odinga in the 2017 presidential election.
Ms Nderitu told PAC chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, that the Nasa coalition agreement deposited with her office does not include a framework on how allocations are to be shared.
“The Nasa coalition members were to do guidelines on how the fund was to be shared but there is nothing. My office can only deal with the issue through a coalition agreement,” Ms Nderitu said.
Section 24 (1) of the Political Parties Act provides that at least 0.3 per cent of the revenue collected by the national government as audited and approved by the National Assembly be allocated to the political parties’ fund.
Administration expenses
Five per cent of the fund shall be for the administration expenses of the fund by the Registrar of Political Parties. However, the National Treasury has been allocating less cash, prompting ODM to file the petition. In the 2017/18 financial year, a total of Sh371.2 million was allocated to the kitty.
Jubilee got Sh240.4 million while ODM secured Sh112.3 million. In the 2018/19 financial year, Sh671.2 million was allocated to the fund and of the amount, Jubilee got 434.6 million and ODM Sh203 million.
The 2019/20 financial saw Jubilee get Sh564.2 million and ODM Sh363.5 million of the Sh871.2 million allocated for the year. In the current financial year, Sh795.2million was allocated to the fund with Jubilee bagging Sh515 million and ODM getting Sh240.5 million.
The three coalition partners in Nasa have been accusing ODM of failing to offer them a share despite contributing immensely to the qualification of Mr Odinga’s party to the fund. ANC, Wiper and Ford Kenya continue to push for a share of the over Sh4.1 billion that ODM was awarded after a successful petition.
The money is in arrears of what ODM was entitled to from 2011 to 2016 after the Office of the registrar failed to implement the Political Parties Act as required.
