Political Party Financing

Politics is heavily dependent on funding. All parties and candidates need money to finance campaigns. But how often do we, the electorate, query how or from where political parties/ political candidates mobilize campaign funding, and how the manner in which campaign financing influences the electoral process and the direction of future public policy. The way that political parties and political candidates are financed has a direct discernible effect on representation. Very few candidates are able to self-finance political campaigns without external contributions. Lack of clarity and transparency in the manner which the countries political parties and candidates are financed creates a persistent feeling that candidates and political parties can and are frequently bought, and that the ‘other’ interests are constantly are being placed above the interests of the electorate.

Both the constitution and national legislation i.e. the Political Parties Act 2011 and the Elections Act 2011, provide for the regulation of political party financing. In the constitution Article 92 (f), (g) and (h) requires Parliament to make laws for the establishment and management of state funding for political parties through a political parties fund; for the audit of accounts of political parties and laws to ensure restrictions on the use of public resources to promote the interests of political parties; Sections 23-31 of the Political Parties Act 2011 that deals with the issue of funding and accounts for political parties restricts sources for political party funding to:

• State funding via the Political Parties Fund;
• Membership fees;
• Voluntary contributions from a lawful source;
• Donations, bequests and grants from any other lawful source, not being from a non-citizen, foreign government, inter-governmental or non-governmental organization; and
• The proceeds of any investment, project or undertaking in which the political party has an interest.
• Foreign agency, or a foreign political party which shares an ideology with a political party registered in Kenya, may provide technical assistance to that political party.

Ideally the laws on political party/political candidate financing should even the playing field ensuring the one party/candidate does no so dramatically outspend another giving them a disproportionate influence over the voting public.

However despite the existence of a robust legal framework for regulating political party financing a Global Integrity report ranked Kenya amongst the lowest-scoring countries in terms of the political finance regulation. The report scores the countries based on effectiveness of laws regulating individual and corporate donations to political parties as well as the auditing of these donations and campaign expenditure.

While the country scored 67 out of 100 for its regulations on political financing regulations, it scored 0 out 100 for effectiveness of these regulations. The country also scored 0 out of 100 on implementation of laws governing political financing and disclosure of political party/political candidate financing information to the public, an aspect the report stated was non-existent in the country. In lay speak we have the laws, but no one is implementing or enforcing them.

The results, particular the zeros in enforcement, and implementation of political party financing regulations, may seem alarming; but when you really think about it how transparent are political parties/political candidates about how and from where they receive their funding; and how accessible information on political party/political candidate financing?

Posted by Mzalendo Editor on April 13, 2012

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