Legislators quash regulation on elections spending limits
Aspirants contesting in next year’s General Election will be free to spend billions of shillings in their campaigns after lawmakers yesterday proposed guidelines which sought to limit the amount of money one could spend on their campaigns.
The MPs unanimously voted against the regulations following recommendations by the Committee on Delegated Legislation chaired by Tiaty MP William Kamket, which annulled in entirety the Contributions and Spending Limits for Political Parties and Candidates as well as rejected the rules submitted to the National Assembly by the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
“This House adopts the Report of the Committee on Delegated Legislation on its consideration of the Draft Election Campaign Financing Regulations, submitted by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries and annuls in entirety.
The Contributions and Spending limits for Political Parties and Candidates for purposes of the General Election to be held on August 19, 2022, notified and published as Gazette Notice No. 8024 of August 9, and, rejects the Draft Election Campaign Financing Regulations submitted to the National Assembly by the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission on August 5,” reads the committee’s report in part.
The regulations which were tabled in August provided for campaign expenditures by setting out permissible sources of campaign financing, prohibited sources of campaign financing, regulation of loans advanced for purposes of campaign financing, regulation of harambees and the powers of the authorized persons and the commission in relation to contributions.
Bank accounts
The regulations, if passed, would have required political parties and aspirants to open specific bank accounts for campaign cash, which would be audited if they contained more than Sh5 million.
“A political party, candidate or any of the authorised persons shall open a bank account in a Kenya financial Institution for the sole purpose of the political parties’ elections campaigns or the candidate’s electoral campaign or referendum campaign,” says the proposed rules.
In case a candidate dies, the account shall be closed after all unpaid claims and surplus electoral funds have been dealt with and a copy of the bank statement submitted to the agency.
The regulation also requires every candidate, political party or referendum committee to report and submit anonymous contributions to the electoral agency.
IEBC had argued that the new regulations seek to operationalise Election Campaign Financing Act, 2013 which was suspended in the 2017 General-Election.
The act mandates the commission to provide for the regulation, management, expenditure and accountability of election campaign funds during election and referendum campaigns.
Statutory threshold
But in its report, Kamket’s committee claimed that the regulations did not meet the constitutional and statutory threshold required to have them approved.
The committee noted that while article 88 (4) of the constitution mandates the commission with the responsibility of regulating the amounts of money that may be spent by or on behalf of a candidate or a party in respect to elections, IEBC can only exercise this power and perform the function in accordance with the constitution and national legislation.
The committee also claimed that IEBC submitted the regulations late yet section 5(a) of the Election Campaign Financing act requires that the commission make rules to regulate election financing at least 12 months before the General Election.
According to the committee, the regulations were laid before the house on August 5 and forwarded to the committee on the very same day for scrutiny.
“On the contrary, IEBC submitted the draft regulations very late, which would not allow the committee time to consider them with the set time lines as per section 13 of the Statutory Instruments Act 2013,” reads the committee’s report.
