High Court Faults Govt’s Move to Reduce Political Parties’ Fund

The High Court declared Kenya Kwanza administration’s decision to reduce political parties fund illegal.

In a major win for the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), High Court Judge Chacha Mwita found that Parliament cannot reduce the amount set in law.

The judge also suspended the implementation of the supplementary Appropriation act (no 3), 2023 published on November 23.

In the petition, the Raila Odinga party accused Kenya kwanza administration of cutting down funds meant for political parties, a Move they said was meant to weaken the opposition.

The judge argued that the money is provided for by the Political Parties Fund and ring-fenced by the Political Parties Act.

Justice Mwita said the money cannot be reduced through the Supplementary Appropriation Act.

The judgment means ODM will now get Sh1.2 billion that had initially been slashed from the Sh6 billion fund.

“Having considered the petition and arguments by parties, and aware of the decision of the Court of Appeal on this 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 zero point three percent of revenue collected by the national government,” the judge ruled.

The party had asked the High Court to suspend implementation of the supplementary budget after Kenya Kwanza government slashed political parties fund by Sh1.2 billion.

ODM lawyer Jackson Awele told the court that initially, the allocation was Sh1.475 billion.

However, he explained that this was below the Sh6 billion allocated to political parties during the 2023-2024 financial year.

He argued that Sh1.2 billion was missing from the allocation in the supplementary budget.

Awele claimed the intention of the Kenya Kwanza regime led by President William Ruto was to cripple multi-party democracy by starving opposition parties of funds.

In 2019, Court of Appeal ordered the government to allocate at least 0.3 per cent of the national budget to political parties. Each party was to get funds according to the number of its MPs.

Awele said President Ruto assented to the Supplementary Appropriation Act (no 3), 2023, paving way for the use of the funds allocated.

“A declaration is hereby issued that the reduction of the money allocated to the Political Parties Fund is contrary to articles 1(1), 2, 3, 10 and 38 of the Constitution as read with section 24(1)(a) of the Political Parties Act,” ruled Mwita.

Section 24(1) (a) of the Political Parties Act confer on the government a positive obligation to allocate to the fund money not being less that 0.3% of the collection of the National government.

It was the ODM party’s case that the National Assembly could not reduce the amount allocated and appropriated to the fund.

They also argued that the funds cannot be reallocated through the Supplementary Appropriation Act once the National Assembly appropriates the funds.

The speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula argued that the National Assembly has the power to vary, reduce or alter appropriation through a supplementary Appropriation Act, where there is a need for additional funds or changes to the approved budget due to unforeseeable circumstances, emergency or change in economic condition

It was Wetangula’s case that section 24(1)(a) of the act imposes on the National Assembly discretion rather than mandatory obligation

According to Njuguna Ndungu CS treasury, the supplementary was necessitated by the need to create space for the settlement of the financial year 2022/2023 carryover, pending bills and provision for emerging priorities and emergencies which included the drought and El-Nino rains.