President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and Raila Odinga ’s ODM will collect nearly Sh1 billion in subscription fees from their elected and nominated leaders in the next five years, making party leadership one of the most lucrative ventures in the country.
Elected and nominated MPs and MCAs as well as governors pay subscription fees through payroll deductions to their parties every month, which is spent at the discretion of party bosses.
Political parties with elected representatives additionally get taxpayers’ funding from the exchequer to finance their operations.
UDA – which is currently the largest political party in the country by number of elected leaders – will be receiving Sh10.6 million every month, translating to Sh127 million annually from its leaders.
By the end of the five-year tenure of the leaders, the party will have collected Sh635 million to manage its operations.
ODM, on the other hand, will be collecting Sh5.3 million per month from the mandatory monthly deductions from its leaders. The figure translates to Sh63.6 million annually for the party that is currently ranked as the richest with an assets base of Sh10 billion, according to its recently released financial statements.
The two main political parties will net Sh953 million from their elected leaders in the five years, besides drawing hundreds of millions of shillings from taxpayers through the political parties fund.
The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) is currently processing Sh1.4 billion to be shared between parties that qualify for the fund.
UDA and ODM will be the major beneficiaries of the cash owing to their performance in the August 9 elections.
UDA has instructed its 20 governors to remit Sh75,000 per month, bringing the total monthly pay by the county bosses to Sh1.5 million.
The party’s 22 elected senators will be contributing Sh20,000 per month, while the nominated representatives have been instructed to remit Sh50,000. From the Senate alone, the party will be collecting Sh440,000 from its 22 elected senators and Sh500,000 from its nominated senators.
In the National Assembly, UDA’s subscription basket will net Sh2.76 million from its 138 members instructed to pay Sh20,000 and an additional Sh250,000 from its five nominated members, who are required to pay Sh50,000 each.
A bigger chunk of the monthly subscriptions are set to come from hundreds of MCAs. There are 1,450 wards spread across the country. The 47 county assemblies also have hundreds of nominated MCAs in gender top up and other interest groups.
UDA has 778 MCAs elected on its ticket. Of the number, 519 are elected and are required to pay Sh5,000 per month, adding up the total figure from the elected MCAs to Sh2.59 million. The remaining 259 nominated are required to pay Sh10,000 per month.
UDA charges nominated leaders more since they have no specific constituents, hence have a lighter financial burden. Elected leaders have constantly complained how they end up spending all their salaries and allowances attending to personal needs of their electorate, including contributions for medical expenses, funeral contributions and fundraisers for school fees, among other needs by their voters.
UDA national chairman Johnson Muthama told the Saturday Nation that the cash is spent on sustaining operations of political parties.
Mr Muthama said that political parties do not engage in any business to earn profits, and have to rely on membership subscriptions.
“Party operations are funded by the leaders because the party does not do any business. In the tradition of this country, parties survive on the goodwill of their leaders hence everyone has the obligation to support the party,” said Mr Muthama.
Parties spend the millions of shillings they collect from their members to run their affairs, including paying rent for their national and regional offices as well as remunerating members of their secretariat.
ODM has since instructed its 88 members in the National Assembly to remit Sh20,000 per month, bringing the total collection by the party from the House to Sh1.76 million.
The party’s 15 governors will be remitting Sh50,000 monthly in what will add to Sh750, 000 to the outfit’s bank accounts. The party’s 20 senators will cumulatively be remitting Sh400,000 from the Sh20,000 monthly subscription by each of the members.
The party has 475 MCAs, 317 elected and 158 nominated. Each of the MCAs remit Sh5,000, which translates to Sh2.37 million per month. The Orange party is currently owed Sh9.62 billion by the exchequer.
Other parties like Wiper party of Kalonzo Musyoka and Jubilee of former President Uhuru Kenyatta will also be collecting hundreds of thousands from its elected leaders. Wiper has three governors, three senators and 25 members in the National Assembly.
Jubilee has in the past collected Sh10,000 from MPs, Sh5,000 from MCAs and Sh50,000 from governors. It has 29 members in the National Assembly, five senators and one governor. It was not clear if they have revised the figures as they did not respond to our queries.
United Democratic Movement (UDM) of Mandera Senator, which is the second-largest party in Kenya Kwanza Alliance of President Ruto, has instructed its two governors to each remit Sh50,000 per month.
The party’s 11 MPs (eight in the National Assembly and three senators) will each be remitting Sh20,000 per month while its two speakers in the county assemblies will also each be remitting Sh20,000. The party has 75 MCAs and each has been instructed to pay Sh5,000 monthly.
UDM will be collecting Sh100,000 from its two governors, Sh220,000 from its 11 MPs, Sh375,000 from its 75 MCAs and Sh40,000 from its two speakers. Cumulatively, it will be collecting Sh537,000 per month.
Amani National Congress (ANC) has 36 elected MCAs, 20 nominated, eight MPs and a governor.
Secretary-general Simon Gakuru told the Nation that the party is yet to convene a meeting to agree on monthly subscription by the members.
“We are yet to sit and agree on how much our elected and nominated members should pay as their monthly subscription,” said Mr Gakuru.
Previously, the party had been charging their MPs Sh30,000 in monthly subscriptions. Nominated MCAs have been paying Sh7,000 while their elected counterparts have been paying Sh5,000 per month.
Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu said that the Sh1.4 billion political Parties Fund (PPF) will be disbursed quarterly starting next month.
Ms Nderitu said her team was currently sifting through election data in calculating how much of the qualifying party will get from the exchequer.
“Its massive data that we are dealing with here. We have to know how many votes were cast in favour of each of the political parties to determine how much each is entitled to,” said Ms Nderitu. “It is massive data but we hope to be done in the next two weeks,” she explained.
The fund is allocated 0.3 per cent of the national government revenue each year to be disbursed to qualified parties.
According to the Political Parties Act 2022, a party can only benefit from the fund if it has at least one elected leader.
“For a political party to benefit from the Political Parties Fund (PPF), it must have at least an elected representative, a two-third gender principle complaint composition of office bearers and representation of special interest groups in its governing body,” states the Act.
The Act also provides that 70 per cent of the fund should be distributed proportionately based on the total number of votes secured by each political party in the preceding election.
Another 15 per cent shall be distributed proportionately to parties based on the number of candidates from special interest groups elected in the preceding general election.
Ten per cent shall be shared out proportionately to parties based on the number of representatives from the party elected in the preceding general election while the remaining five per cent is for administration expenses by ORPP.
