Disputes tribunal rejects UDA’s petition on allocation of parties funds
By Bernice.Mbugua, January 20, 2023
The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) yesterday suffered a blow after the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal declined to compel the Registrar of political parties to reallocate Sh1.48 billion from the Political Parties Fund.
The tribunal, chaired by Desma Nungo (pictured), dismissed the application filed President William Ruto’s party saying Registrar of Political Parties distributed the Funds in accordance with the law.
PPDT said the party failed to prove its case on a balance of probabilities and did not convince them that the Political Parties Fund was distributed in breach of the law.
UDA, which was allocated the lion’s share of Sh577.2 million for 2022/23 financial year, challenged the sharing claiming that the Registrar of Political Parties erred in law by failing to disclose the formula used in calculating or arriving at the amounts allocated to the 48 qualifying parties.
Among the other parties that were allocated the funds are ODM (Sh308 million), Jubilee (Sh135 million), Wiper Party (Sh72 million) and Democratic Action Party of Kenya (DAP-K) which will get Sh31.6 million.
UDA argues that the Registrar of Political Parties failed to properly put to equilibrium the funds allocated to it vis-à-vis the votes secured in the August 9, 2022 election.
The party said the Registrar also erred in law and fact by failing to find that UDA party was entitled to all the votes as per the published voters register, in relation to Kericho County Woman Representative and Member of County Assembly, Ravine Ward, Baringo County, having won the two positions unopposed.
The Political Parties Dispute tribunal, however, dismissed the case saying that UDA party was involved in the various consultative meetings held to discuss issues around the distribution of the funds to the qualifying political parties
“From the record, we note that even after the fund distribution, the Registrar of Political Parties held subsequent sessions with eligible political parties to discuss and train the political parties on work plan and management of the Political Parties Fund,” noted the tribunal.