Ruto's UDA Contests Sh577 Million Political Parties Fund Share, Demands an Additional Sh115 Million

The Political Parties Tribunal has issued an order staying the Registrar of Political Parties' gazette notice dated November 4th on the distribution of Sh1.48 billion political parties fund.

This follows an application by the President Ruto-led United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party contesting the amount allocated to it, saying the Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu failed to disclose the formula used in distributing the funds.

Through lawyer Adrian Kamotho, the ruling party claims the registrar miscalculated the total number of votes garnered by qualifying parties in the August 9th general election, in regard to the election of the President, Members of Parliament, County Governors and Member of County Assemblies.

Consequently, the party claims it has been unlawfully deprived of funds in excess of Sh115 million that it is rightfully entitled to, a move that will jeopardize its activities and operations.

"Unless this application is urgently heard and allowed as prayed, the Appellant is legitimately apprehensive that the Respondent will proceed to release the miscalculated funds to the detriment of the Appellant," reads court papers.

UDA got 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.

It 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).

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.

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