The ruling party UDA will rake in hundreds of millions of shillings, if not billions, during its grassroots elections slated for December.
The polls are expected to attract thousands of candidates given the fact that UDA is the largest political vehicle by representation in the county and national governments.
The charges will range from as low as Sh200 at village level to Sh50,000 for aspirants eyeing top seats.
By paying Sh200, an ordinary UDA member will qualify to contest for chairperson, secretary or treasurer of a polling station, and also get a chance to be picked as a national delegate of the party.
UDA has declared various positions to be contested right from the polling station level up to national level where interested candidates will pay little fees for clearance in order to earn a mandate to oversee party affairs within their jurisdictions.
According to UDA National Organising Secretary Vincent Musyoka Kawaya, the nomination fees are affordable for party supporters to ensure fairness in the elections scheduled for December 9.
Mr Kawaya announced that at ward level, candidates will pay Sh1,000 while those seeking party leadership at the constituency level will be required to pay Sh2,000.
“We want to give every UDA member an opportunity to participate in the party elections and that’s why we have deliberately set nomination fees which hustlers can afford to ensure inclusivity in the process,” Mr Kawaya said.
Speaking to the Nation yesterday, Mr Kawaya explained that UDA, which is the main partner in the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition, is leaving nothing to chance as it works to hold fair and transparent elections in which the people will decide who their leaders will be.
He said that any member seeking to become a county party official will pay Sh10,000, compared to the exorbitant fees charged by other parties which may scare people away.
At national level, the figure is expected to rise to at least Sh50,000 per candidate. Still at county level, candidates for chairperson and secretary position will each pay Sh20,000. The rest of the seats will attract a Sh10,000 fee.
UDA party will make a killing from the nomination fees if conservative estimates done by the Nation are anything to go by.
At each electoral level, there are 13 positions to be contested. This means, if each position at the polling station attracts only two candidates, each paying Sh200, the party will earn in excess of Sh260 million, on the first round of grassroots polls.
The party will also earn more in nomination fees at ward, constituency, county and national levels.
Mr Kawaya announced that the party had already acquired more than 50,000 biometric kits to be deployed in each of the 53,481 polling stations countrywide to ensure only registered UDA members participate in the elections.
“We have adopted robust technology to guarantee fairness and transparency. There will be no ballot papers and the whole process will be digital and paperless,” said Mr Kawaya, the youthful MP for Mwala Constituency.
He said that the biometric gadgets, which contain the membership register, will be used to identify members. Voting will be done electronically.
Vote tallying and results transmission will also be done electronically in real time; both at the polling centre and to a server at the party headquarters.
“By eliminating ballot papers and adopting electronic voting, we have effectively eradicated all manner of electoral fraud including ballot stuffing and interference by rival political parties,” said Mr Kawaya, adding this system will also cut the cost of the election by more than 70 percent.
The MP, who chairs the National Assembly Committee on Energy, said the entire voting, tallying and results transmission processes will be done digitally.
In a bid to allay fears of technology failures on the party’s big day, Mr Kawaya said the gadgets are being synchronised with sub-networks in various regions and they will be able to work both online and offline. This way, he said, chances of failure or being hacked are minised.
The Organising Secretary urged UDA faithful to verify their party membership status with the Registrar of Political Parties or the party portal before the Election Day, and ensure their credentials are correctly captured.
“After December 9 voting, a new date will be set for ward election where the 13 officials and seven members will converge to pick 13 ward officials and seven committee members, and subsequently for constituency and county levels” he said.
Mr Kawaya explained the 290 constituency party committees will form the basis for picking delegates to an Electoral College – modelled alongside the United States political party system, which will then elect top party officials in a National Delegates Conference.
The UDA official said the elaborate plans they have laid will see President Ruto’s party emerge more vibrant at every corner of the country and stronger to compete effectively in the 2027 general elections.
“I can tell you, with the plans we have, no political party in the whole of Africa will beat UDA in organising the most fair and transparent elections to pick officials and give membership real ownership of the ruling party” he said.
According to data from the Registrar of Political Parties, UDA party now has slightly more than 6 million Kenyans enlisted as members but Mr Kawaya said their figures were about 7.8 million members.
He explained the disparity to the slow verification process by the ORPP to update the membership register, saying by December, they intend to have surpassed 9 million members.
“I want to urge every prospective candidate across the country to embark on a vigorous member recruitment drive in their respective areas because they will need members to vote for them” he said.
Mr Kawaya announced the leaders currently elected under UDA will start participating in the upcoming elections at their level of positions they hold, meaning President Ruto will only contest for party leadership at the National Delegates Conference.
UDA MPs will gun for constituency offices going upwards while Governors and Senators will begin at county levels.
