President Ruto's UDA Gets Lion's Share of Political Parties Fund at Sh577 Million

President Ruto-led United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party will receive the lion’s share of the political parties’ fund for the financial year 2022/2023 after garnering the majority votes in the August 9th general election.

48 political parties have been allocated a total of Sh1.47 billion, with UDA receiving over half a billion shillings, according to a gazette notice by the Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu dated November 2nd.

UDA was allocated Sh577,162,898, followed by Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (Sh308,260,679), former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party (Sh135,113,518), Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper (Sh72,110,017), DAP-K (Sh31,642,281), UDM (Sh26,897,846), ANC (Sh26,600,684), and Ford-Kenya (Sh25,863,869).

Other are Narc-Kenya (Sh7,559,722) Devolution Empowerment Party (Sh13,781,840), Democratic Party of Kenya (Sh5,485,815), Party of National Unity (Sh4,462,017), NARC (Sh5,153,865 11), KANU (Sh23,938,039), Muungano Party (Sh6,743,290), Chama Cha Mashinani (Sh8,113,606), Chama Cha Kazi (Sh6,533,345) and Tujibebe Wakenya Party (Sh7,581,022).

70 percent of the political parties’ fund is shared based on the total number of votes secured by each political party in the preceding general election.

15 percent of the fund is allocated to political parties based on the number of candidates from special interest groups elected in the preceding general election while 10 percent is shared based on the total number of representatives from the political party elected in the preceding general election. Five percent is allocated for administration expenses.

In the National Assembly, UDA has 145 MPs, ODM (86), Jubilee (28), Wiper (26), UDM (8), ANC (8), Ford-Kenya (6), KANU (6), DAP-Kenya (5), PAA (3), Kenya Union Party (3), UPIA (2), Maendeleo Chap Chap (2) and The Service Party (2). In the Senate, UDA has the highest number of representatives with 32 of the 67 senators.

The Political Parties Act sets aside 0.3 percent of the national government revenue annually to finance the activities of political parties.