Court declines to stop allocation of Sh360m political parties cash
Registrar of Political Parties Ms Lucy Ndung’u. The High Court has declined to issue orders barring the registrar of political parties from disbursing Sh360 million to only three political parties. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
According to the registrar of political parties, only The National Alliance (TNA), Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and United Republican Party (URP) qualify for the funds.
The High Court has declined to issue orders barring the registrar of political parties from disbursing Sh360 million to only three political parties.
Justice Isaac Lenaola has declined to grant an application by Political Parties Forum Coalition (PPFC), Muungano Party and Kenya National Congress (KNC) the orders, who were seeking to stop the disbursement, set to start Friday.
He directed that PPFC, Muungano and KNC serve the registrar with the petition, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, the Attorney-General, TNA, ODM and URP all of whom are parties to the suit.
They will then have a week to file their responses to the suit, which comes up for hearing on September 10 before the judge on duty as the Court will be in its annual vacation.
“Should the registrar be allowed to proceed with the release of the said funds, which it has indicated to the petitioners will commence on August 29, the petitioners will be irretrievably prejudiced and suffer irreparable harm,” said Charles Kanjama, who is representing the petitioners.
According to the registrar of political parties, only The National Alliance (TNA), Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and United Republican Party (URP) qualify for the funds.
The basis of allocation is the number of votes garnered in the March 4, 2013 General Election. TNA is expected to get 43.3 per cent of the funds, ODM 38.05 per cent and URP 13.7 per cent of the funds.
PPFC, Muungano and KNC had earlier challenged this, and moved to the Court of Appeal after Justice David Majanja ruled against them.
They had also asked the Appellate Court to stop the allocation until their appeal is determined.
The Court of Appeal had also declined to grant them interim orders to stop the allocation, and directed that the application be heard on September 16.
The three moved back to the High Court, arguing that by the time the matter will be heard, the funds will have already been disbursed to TNA, ODM and URP.
The registrar of political parties is expected to start disbursing the funds Friday, but has openly said that the Sh360 million is too little to fund political party activities, despite it being an increase from last year’s Sh205 million.
The registrar had initially requested for Sh3.3 billion to allocate to political parties and run the registrar’s office.
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