The amount is derived from charges paid by 1,510 candidates that the Coalition for Reform and Democracy (Cord), the Jubilee Alliance and the Amani Coalition collectively cleared to vie for various positions, excluding county representatives, in the March 4 General Election.
Parties should ideally use the money to fund their activities including the logistics of nominations such as paying transport, stationery and salaries for personnel.
“We used a huge chunk of it to print ballot papers. What remained, if any, has now gone to courts to pay lawyers who are handling petitions arising from the primaries,” ODM Elections Board chairman Franklin Bett said.
However, the way the nominations were disorganised has raised concerns over how the money was used.
“People think that parties collect huge amounts of money which is misappropriated but the money is not enough,” Mr Bett said, adding that the party had to reprint burnt ballot boxes, 18 clerks in each ward Sh500 for two days, presiding officers Sh2,000 and returning officers Sh5,000 per day.
The list of nominated candidates released by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) last week shows that Cord cleared 616 candidates, Jubilee 498 and Amani 396 to run under their respective banners.
Based on nomination fees paid by presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial, parliamentary and women representative aspirants, Cord bagged Sh81.5 million, Jubilee Sh82.5 million and Amani Sh23.7 million.
TNA charged Sh1 million for those seeking to be the party’s presidential flag bearers, Sh250,000 for those seeking governorship and senatorial seats, Sh150,000 for Member of Parliament hopefuls and Sh75,000 for those seeking tickets to be women representatives.
ODM presidential candidates paid Sh1 million, governors Sh300,000 senate aspirants Sh250,000 and Sh100,000 for those seeking MP and women representative tickets.
UDF charged Sh750,000 for those seeking the presidential ticket, Sh100,000 for governor and senator’s seats and Sh50,000 for MPs and women representative’s slots.
According to the list presented to IEBC, six major political parties will field candidates nationally after the nominations that closed on January 18.
TNA, ODM, UDF, Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM), URP, Narc Kenya and Kenya National Congress (KNC) earned a minimum Sh167.5 million from the 1,421 aspirants that they separately cleared.
ODM, headed by Cord coalition leader and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and TNA, whose leader is Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, had combined revenue of Sh123.3 million in nomination fees from 683 aspirants.
TNA, which is under the Jubilee Coalition, recorded the highest returns of Sh74 million from 315 candidates who will contest for the presidency, county and constituency seats.
The party cleared 33 candidates for women representative, 30 for governor, 221 for MP and 30 for senator seats. It earned Sh1 million from Mr Kenyatta, Sh15 million from the aspiring governors, Sh24.8 million from women representatives and Sh33.2 million for MP aspirants.
ODM collected Sh1 million from Mr Odinga, the flagbearer, Sh9.3 million from governor hopefuls, Sh8.8 million for senate candidates, Sh2.9 million from women representative candidate and Sh27.3 million for national assembly hopefuls.
In total, it collected Sh49.3 million from 368 candidates. It cleared 31 candidates for governor, 35 for the senate, 29 for women representative and 273 for Parliament.
UDF headed by Amani presidential candidate Musalia Mudavadi received Sh10.4 million from the 166 candidates it has presented for elections.
It collected Sh750,000 from Mr Mudavadi, Sh1.6m from 16 governor aspirants, Sh1 million from 10 senators, Sh700,000 from 14 women representatives and Sh6.3 million from 126 MP hopefuls.
“The nomination fees went to logistics, purchase of election materials, paying clerks, returning officers and meeting transport costs,” said UDF chairman Hassan Osman .
URP received Sh24.2 million from its 187 candidates. The party charged its presidential aspirant — Eldoret North MP William Ruto — Sh1 million while those eyeing gubernatorial and senatorial seats paid Sh200,000.
Women representatives and MPs seat attracted Sh100,000. Mr Ruto has since dropped his presidential bid to be Mr Kenyatta’s running mate.
The party cleared 23 aspirants for governor and 24 senators receiving Sh9.4 million. It also collected Sh13.8 million from 29 women representative and 109 MPs. The Wiper Democratic Partyreceived Sh13.7 million from 122 candidates it has lined up for the polls.
Kenya National Congress (KNC) received Sh11 million out of its 157 candidates it has presented for the various seats from president to women representative.
Peter Kenneth, the Eagle Coalition’s presidential candidate, will run alongside 15 candidates for governor, 13 for senate, 16 for women reps and 113 MPs through KNC.
Narc Kenya, headed by presidential candidate Martha Karua, collected Sh9.1 million from its seven governor aspirants, nine senate, 15 women representatives and 75 MP aspirants. - Daily Nation
