Cash-strapped IEBC grapples with over Sh1 billion debt
PHOTO | FILE Electoral commission officials prepare election materials in Bungoma. A company contracted to deliver printers during last year’s General Election is seeking Sh270 million from the electoral commission.
What you need to know:
- 13 law firms billed Sh380 million in legal fees for the presidential petition
- The Law Society of Kenya had initially proposed that the charges be raised by between 80 and 100 per cent.
- Sources at the institution said the commission has accumulated over Sh2 billion in debt since the last General Election, and has only managed to pay about half of it.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is “drowning in debt."
Sources at the institution said the commission has accumulated over Sh2 billion in debt since the last General Election, and has only managed to pay about half of it.
The commission owed lawyers who represented it during the presidential petition last year almost Sh400 million for their services.
The high-profile case at the Supreme Court was handled by a team of 13 law firms, which billed Sh380 million in legal fees.
IEBC chairman Issack Hassan was represented by lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, while Mr Paul Nyamodi and Mr Aurelio Rebelo held brief for the commission.
On Tuesday, commission vice-chairperson Mahiri Zaja revealed that voter registration has been going on for over a month, but claimed the institution had no money for creating awareness about the exercise.
“We don’t even have funds. So we said we’ll do it quietly,” Ms Zaja told the Justice and Legal Affairs committee at Parliament.
IEBC officials declined to comment on the matter despite having promised to respond to a set of questions sent via email.
“We are cash-strapped. We are drowning in debt. We have pending bills from suppliers and we have been asking them to bear with us. We have so far paid about Sh1 billion,” a source at the electoral body who cannot be named said. “We owe one newspaper Sh82 million. But we are talking with Treasury for more funds. They have assisted especially with by-elections.”
Some polling clerks, who were employed on short-term contracts during the March 4 elections, are also yet to be paid more than a year after they offered their services.
Another IEBC insider said the commission was headed for financial challenges after Treasury and Parliament cut its budget from the requested Sh25 billion to Sh17.3 billion.
“We had planned meticulously to irreducible minimum,” said the source.
Another financial challenge came from the legal requirement for the electoral body to advertise all its processes.
“We were required to publish the nomination political party list. We asked the courts to allow us make a small advert in the newspapers drawing people to our website. They refused,” the source added.
The Sh380 million bill for the lawyers could be the largest amount of money made by law firms in Kenya in a short period.
The high-voltage presidential petition was filed at the Supreme Court on March 16 and the court gave its ruling on March 30.
This year, lawyers raised their fees by 40 per cent, despite the Competition Authority of Kenya protesting over the possibility of price-fixing.
The Law Society of Kenya had initially proposed that the charges be raised by between 80 and 100 per cent.
