Sifuna accuses Ruto of irregular reductions of political parties’ funds

By Peter Ochieng

Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has accused President William Ruto’s administration of irregularly reducing funds meant for political parties.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Secretary General in a letter dated 29th November 2023 addressed to the registrar of political parties Ann Nderitu, and copied to the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Finance Njuguna Ndung’u and Ndindi Nyoro, Chair of the budget and appropriations committee in the national assembly, seen by Nairobi Review stated that the reduction of close to Sh1.5 billion will deprive parties of resources to fund programs in their work plans for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th quarters.

“In his first supplementary budget last year Ruto cut close to Sh600 million from the Political Parties Fund. This year he has cut almost Sh900 million meaning in one year alone Political Parties have lost Sh1.5 billion,” said the vocal Senator.

He accuses President Ruto of trying as much as he can to cripple the operations of political parties.

“Even when he waxes lyrical about democracy he is intent on crippling operations of parties most of them in the opposition.”

The first-term Senator called out Nderitu for keeping silent in the wake of the irregular reductions, adding weight to why they support a proposal by the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) on scrapping the Office of Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP).

“All this while the ORPP Kenya is silent, which is why we support the proposal by NADCO to scrap that office,” added Sifuna.

Sifuna said that the Political Parties Fund was established to advance democracy, in particular, to promote party representation in parliament of marginalized and disadvantaged groups, popularize policies of political parties, and manage administrative and staff expenses.

He said those objectives will be in jeopardy, if money meant for political parties is reduced irregularly by the government of the day.