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President Ruto and Raila Odinga parties get Sh372m more from Political Parties Fund
President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) have pocketed an additional 372 million from the 2024/2025 Political Parties Fund kitty compared to the previous year.
The ruling party was allocated the lion’s share of the funds at Sh558 million, almost doubling the Sh298 million disbursed to ODM.
The funds were distributed based on the total number of votes garnered by each political party in the 2022 general election.
Among other electoral positions, the UDA party attained the largest representation in the National Assembly with 138 elected MPS and 22 in the Senate, while ODM had 86 MPs and 13 senators elected on its ticket.
The gazette notice published by the Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu also allocated Jubilee, the party headed by former President Uhuru Kenyatta, Sh130.8 million as Kalonzo Musyoka's Wiper party bagged Sh69.8 million.
The Jubilee party managed to send 28 MPs and four senators to the national assembly while Wiper secured 26 MP and three Senate positions in the last election.
Democratic Action Party – Kenya (DAP-K) led by Eugene Wamalwa, which won five parliamentary seats, was awarded Sh30.6 million as UDM got Sh26 million.
Others who made it to the top 10 list are Musalia Mudavadi's Amani National Congress (Sh25.7 million), Moses Wetangula's Ford-Kenya (Sh25 million), Gideon Moi’s Kanu (Sh23.2 million) while Devolution Empowerment Party (DEP), associated with former Meru Governor Kiraitu Murungi, received Sh7.5 million.
Out of the 48 political parties that were eligible to receive the funding, Justice and Freedom Party of Kenya, Kenya African Democratic Union- Asili and Green Thinking Action Party received the least amounts of Sh268,024, Sh464,348 and Sh563,774 respectively.
Following the amendments to the Political Parties Act, 2022 (The Political Parties (Amendment) Act, 2022), the qualification threshold and criteria for distribution of the fund is 70 percent based on the total number of votes secured by each political party in the preceding general election.
Other parameters include 15 percent based on the number of candidates of the party from special interest groups, 10 percent based on the total number of representatives from the political party elected in the preceding general election, while five per cent of the fund is utilised by the ORPP for the administration expenses of the Fund.
However, a political party is not entitled to funding if more than two thirds of its registered office bearers are of the same gender, failure to have a representation of special interest groups in the governing body or any elected member in office.
The main source of the Political Parties Fund is the National Government (0.3 per cent of National Revenue) with other recognised sources that may include membership subscription fee, contributions and donations.
