NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 3 – The Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) has cautioned against a legislative proposal to slash political parties funding, saying the move will cripple the operations of political parties in the country.
Their concern follows a proposal contained in statute Miscellaneous Bill to amend the Political Parties Act (2011) with an aim of completely removing the 0.3 per cent of the total national revenues earmarked for political parties.
CMD, in a statement issued on Friday, termed the proposed amendment as an illegality which goes against the spirit of multi-party democracy in Kenya, whose attainment depends on the strength of political parties.
“In this context, we find it unacceptable, malicious and disrespectful that through the Statute Laws, 2020 the Treasury intends to entirely do away with this constitutional provision and entitlement for political parties,” CMD Executive Director Frankline Mukwanja stated.
He further said the amendment is in bad faith given that the country is in the early stages of the 2022 General Election and parties are in the process of planning their programs including grass roots elections and primaries.
“Slashing funds will deal a death blow to these plans,” he said.
The Political Parties Fund was established by the 10th Parliament with an aim of improving democratic governance in the country. This necessity led an amendment to the Political Parties Act (2011) setting aside at least 0.3 per cent of the latest audited revenue collected by the national government.
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