Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu has raised a red flag over the government's move to scrap her office and replace it with a commission.
Ms Nderitu says creation of the Independent Political Parties Regulatory Commission (IPPRC) to replace her office is “fundamentally flawed” and will interfere with operations of political parties.
The Political Parties (Amendment) Bill 2024 before Parliament, is a product of the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco) that was established by the government, and had representatives of President William Ruto and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, to propose electoral reforms following bloody protests after August 2022 elections.
Ms Nderitu on January 30, noted that the proposals in the Bill go against the recommendations of stakeholders during the Nadco process and therefore requires reworking before it is enacted.
“The Bill proposes a regulatory commission without the regulatory function,” says Ms Nderitu.
“It seeks to do away with the regulatory function as currently provided but without deleting regulatory activities. This is a contradiction and a recipe for chaos as there shall be no basis for regulating political parties,” Ms Nderitu says.
The Bill is in the name of Leader of Majority in Senate Aaron Cheruiyot (Kericho) and his minority colleague Stewarts Madzayo (Kilifi).
A closer look at the Bill reveals that it has no transitional or saving clauses for political parties and their records hence unclear whether parties will have to be registered afresh as it was when the Political Parties Act of 2007 came into force.
The proposed law lacks transitional or saving clauses for the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) staff, assets, liabilities, rights and obligations.
This means that if enacted in the current form, the staff attached to the ORPP will lose jobs with the fate of the office assets, rights and obligations thrown in the deep end of the sea.
Currently, the registrar of political parties and the two assistant registrars enjoy security of tenure but the Bill does not provide what is to happen to them once it becomes law.
The existence of the coalition political parties is also doubtful under the proposed regime as it lacks clarity on what will happen and also proposes to create a statutory commission as opposed to a constitutional commission.
“The Bill seeks to create a regulatory commission without it having the regulatory powers hence unclear how the commission is to regulate political parties,” says the parties’ registrar.
“Noting the constitutional insulation offered to political parties through various provisions in the constitution, the regulatory commission should have the same protection by establishing the regulatory commission.”
Another grey area in the Bill is that it establishes the regulatory commission without there being a recruitment process or qualifications for the members.
Further, of the five commissioners the Bill is proposing, four are to be nominated by the majority and minority coalition or party.
The fifth commissioner is to be appointed by the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) from non-parliamentary registered political parties “yet there is no definition of what non-parliamentary party is.”
“Practically, the commission shall not be able to make independent decisions and this may cause chaos and political instability.”
The Bill has not proposed any amendments or a deletion of section 36 and the Sixth Schedule to the Political Parties Act that currently provide for the process of recruitment of the Registrar and the two Assistant Registrars of Political Parties.
The Bill also fails to establish the proposed regulatory commission as a body corporate with perpetual succession and does not provide the sources of the funds for the commission unlike the current regime that is clearly defined.
Interestingly, the regulatory commission will be required to regulate party nominations without there being a corresponding amendment to Article 88 (4) of the constitution which mandates Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to regulate party nominations.
