UDA contests political parties' revenue share

The Political Parties Disputes Tribunal has issued orders temporarily putting on hold the allocation of the Political Parties Fund as gazetted by the Registrar of Political Parties on November 4, 2022.

The move by the disputes tribunal comes after President William Ruto's United Democratic Alliance Party protested the recent allocation demanding an additional Ksh.115 million.

UDA claims that the formula used by the Registrar of Political Parties affected it's allocation adversely.

Following amendments of the Political Parties Act in the run up to the August 9 polls, the formula for the sharing of the Political Parties Fund changed and more than 50 political parties that participated in the election have qualified for the fund.

A week after the registrar of political parties allocated funds to various political parties, UDA is now protesting its allocation.

In a case before the Political Parties Dispute Resolution Tribunal, UDA protests a letter from the registrar that allocated it Ksh. 577.1 million for the financial year 2022/2023 saying it had no particulars of computation provided to show how the said figure was arrived at.

According to UDA, the Registrar, failed to disclose the formula used, failed to reveal the number of qualifying votes to arrive at the figure, failed to use unopposed votes for the Kericho county woman rep seat as well as Eldama Ravine ward seat and also miscalculated the total number of votes garnered by UDA.

Consequently, UDA says the omissions led to the loss of more than Ksh.115 million that it is rightfully entitled to.

The President's party wants the Registrar ordered to pay the missing funds to the party.

According to the ORPP, UDA bagged Ksh.577 million, followed by Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement which was allocated Ksh. 308 million, former president Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee party was allocated Ksh.135 million and Kalonzo Musyoka’s wiper party got Ksh.72 million.

According to the law, 70 percent of the 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 1o percent is shared based on the total number of representatives from the political party elected in the preceding general election.

5 percent is allocated for administration expenses at the ORPP.

According to speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula, UDA has 145 MPs, ODM 86, Jubilee 28 and wiper 26.

In the Senate, UDA has the highest number of representatives with at least 32 of the 67 senators.