NAIROBI, Kenya Oct 17- Civil Society Organizations have threatened to move to court to seek intervention on the action by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to revoke a notice published on August 9, stipulating spending limits for candidates and political parties in next year’s elections.
In a joint statement, the consortium of civil society groups which included Transparency International Kenya (TI-Kenya), Center for Multiparty Democracy (CMD-Kenya), Election Observation Group (ELOG), Mzalendo Trust and Constitution and Reform of Education Consortium (CRECO) faulted the move by IEBC even though it is within its mandate.
“The powers to regulate the spending limits of candidates and politicians lies within the mandate of IEBC. We believe that lack a legal regime on spending limit will skew the outcome of elections. We will move to court to seek judicial intervention on the matter so as to find a clear situation on the matter,” said Frankline Mukhwanja, the Executive Director of Center for Multiparty Democracy.
IEBC in a Gazette Notice dated October 8, 2021 revoked the campaign spending limits that had provided guidelines to cap election spending by candidates and political parties after parliament squashed the regulations.
The civil society groups also said they are seeking court intervention to have legislators de-linked from the enactment process of the campaign financing Act, claiming that interests by the August house have led to the derailment in the enacting of the finance regulations since 2013.
They castigated Parliament for thwarting the finance regulation due to lack of adherence to legal timelines by the electoral body among other technical issues.
“We have seen each house suspended the operationalization of the Act to the next one. Our concern is that if this trend continues then the election financing Act might be suspended to perpetuity because each house will leave it to the next one. The matter should not be left to the house after all we don’t know what interest the 2027 house might have,” Executive Director of Mzalendo Trust Caroline Gaito pointed out.
In particular, the groups insist that lack of a legal regime to regulate the use of campaign money is a contravention of the constitution as marginalized groups will be disadvantaged.
“Without a levelling of the playing field it means that the prerequisite of a free and fair elections will not be adhered to. It potentially means that the traditionally vulnerable groups in politics such as women and People with Disabilities will lack a free and fair environment to compete . That’s reason why we are seeking a recourse for Kenyans,” said Sheila Masinde, Executive Director, TI-Kenya.
In the Public Interest Litigation, the civil organizations said they intend to have candidates and political parties disclose their sources of campaign funds on their own volition.
“All is not lost just because IEBC has revoked the spending limit gazette notice and the regulations has not been passed by parliament. We should vet our leaders as citizens by interrogating how much their spending, where they are getting this money from and are they disclosing where they get this fund from,” Masinde stated.
Parliament passed the Campaign Financing Act in December 2013, nine months after that year’s general election. That law was to be implemented in the 2017 general election.
In 2016, less than a year to the 2017 general election, Parliament rejected implementing regulations submitted by IEBC. In January 2017, the law was deferred until the 2022 general election.
In July this year, IEBC re-submitted the regulations tabled in 2016.Despite the poll body having published the campaign spending limits on the 9th of August, the house through a recommendation by Committee on Delegated Legislation rejected the regulations on September 28th.
This means that the Campaign-Financing Act can probably have a lifeline in the August 2027 general election.
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