In its quest to “liberate” Kenya, Raila Odinga led opposition is bound to grapple with a huge cash crunch to fund its rebellion against President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Raila’s withdrawal from the repeat polls cost NASA millions of shillings it gets from the Political Parties Fund.
With this in the fore, funding operations of the National Resistance Movement and the People’s Assembly will be a tall order for NASA.
According to the Star, by law, the only political party eligible to funding is the one that got at least five per cent of the total vote in the last poll.
Uhuru’s Jubilee got more than this. It has majority of MPs, Senators and Governors as well as MCAs.
ODM also lost a sh4.1 billion case against the state.
Senior Counsel James Orengo told the Court on Wednesday that: “The failure or refusal to disburse all the funds due to the political party undermines democracy, the rule of law, and the objectives for which the fund was established.”
The case by NASA was to seek compelling orders to the Political Parties Fund to release sh4.1 billion it allegedly owes the opposition between 2012 and 2016.
However, High Court judge Roslyne Aburili ruled she could not lay a burden on the taxpayer to fund ODM because it demanded for the money at the wrong time.
“The party waited for four financial years to demand the money, yet it knew that Parliament had not been allocating the correct figures.”
“It will not be in the interests of justice or public policy for the amount to be released to the party.”
Should Uhuru be sworn in, then, things are bound to get tough for NASA as it seeks funding for its uprising which is expensive in the long run.
Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndungu said in this financial year, parties will share Sh371.2 million to share in this financial year.
However, she said the money will only be released once all issues surrounding the Presidential polls are sorted out.
“In fact, we had a discussion in the office and we felt that the criterion is skewed in their favour,” she said.
Pundits argue Raila’s withdrawal from the race was a great disservice to his party.
He garnered 73, 228 votes while Uhuru garnered over 7.4 million votes.
In disbursement of the money to political parties, Jubilee will get a lion’s share since it got the highest number of votes in the just concluded repeat Presidential election.
In addition, Jubilee has 171 MPs and 34 Senators while ODM has 66 MPs and 20 Senators
Before August 8 polls, Raila and his co –principals Kalonzo Muysoka, Moses Wetangula and Musalia Mudavadi turned to Kenyans for fundraiser.
This also happened immediately the Supreme Court nullified August 8 polls.