ODM wins political parties funding case against govt
The Orange Democratic Party(ODM) has won the political parties funding case against the Kenya Kwanza government.
The giant opposition party's secretary general Edwin Sifuna welcomed the decision by Justice Chacha Mwita who maintained that the state should pay political parties their fair share of revenue.
"Having considered the petition and arguments by parties, and aware of the decision of the Court of Appeal on the issue, the inescapable conclusion I come to is that the National Assembly has a positive statutory obligation to allocate to the political parties fund money that is not less than 0.3 per cent of revenue collected by the government," Justice Chacha ruled.
ODM's woes
In January, the ODM party protested what it termed as the intentional delay of funds to political parties that had crippled much of their activities.
“The delay and underfunding to political parties has greatly affected party institutionalization and lowered the desired value-infusion, which in turn would ensure that the people of Kenya see political parties as necessary organizations in the democratization process,” Azimio leaders said in a joint statement.
According to Sifuna, the political parties last received funding in June 2022. The Nairobi senator decried that the situation has left them with pending arrears accruing from rent among other bills that need to be sorted and consequently paralyzed operations.
“ODM, you know, has 47 county offices. We have rent arrears from June last year. Our county chairmen are calling us every day. They think we are lying because the President told them on national media that money was released to the registrar of political parties,” he stated.
Both parties involved in the case would bear their respective cost of litigation according to the ruling.
Taking to his X handle, Sifuna maintained that the ODM party had been right all along during the handling of the case.
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