The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) allied to President William Ruto’s suffered a major blow after the Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu opposed the party’s push for allocation of an extra Ksh115 million from the political parties fund.
In her defence, the registrar maintained that the formula she used to distribute the political parties’ funds was accurate, transparent and the party was not entitled to any extra allocation.
The bone of contention between Nderitu and UDA emanated from claims by the Ruto-led outfit that the Registrar failed to consider votes garnered in the Kericho Woman Representative and Ravine Ward Member of County Assembly(MCA) elections, where the two candidates won unopposed.
Nderitu argued that since there were no votes to be considered in terms of the two unopposed positions, there were no votes cast, hence no funds.
The registrar further pointed out that the legal framework of allocation considered the votes garnered by each political party and the elective seats won by the party.
She added that prior to the distribution of the funds, she had engaged the political parties and discussed the distribution formula.
Through it’s lawyer Kamotho Njenga, UDA argued that the registrar miscalculated the votes gathered by legitimate parties in the General Election.
UDA was allocated Ksh577 million from a Ksh1.48 billion Political Parties Fund, an amount it challenged citing that its operations will be affected.
In a Gazette Notice dated November 2, 2022, the Ksh1.48 billion for the 2022/23 financial year was meant to be shared amongst 48 political parties with the top beneficiaries being UDA, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Jubilee Party, Wiper Democratic Party and Democratic Action Party of Kenya (DAP-K).
ODM party was allocated Ksh308 million followed by Jubilee party with Ksh135 million, Wiper party was allocated Ksh72 million while DAP-K was expecting Ksh31 million.
Small parties will also reap from the kitty this year following amendments that were made to the Political Parties Act in 2021.
Nderitu’s office wants the tribunal to dismiss UDA’s case, in the tussle that saw the suspension of the distribution of the fund, pending a hearing of the dispute.
Desma Nungo, the Chairperson of the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal, will hear the case on November 30, 2022.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE
