Business Daily (Nairobi)
5 November 2009
editorial
Now that the Interim Independent Electoral Commission of Kenya has released the long awaited regulations to the Political Parties Act that will pave way to the funding of political parties, serious questions must be asked before the money is dished out.
The bottom line is that parties will no longer be asking for money from taxpayers in a polite way.
They will squeeze the funds from the State coffers legally.
Given such a scenario, and since politicians have boxed taxpayers into a corner, we can only demand accountability for our money.
The quest to have the State fund political parties is borne of the desperation of the opposition political parties during the Kanu regime when the then ruling party mandarins could not distinguish between State funds and party monies.
This led to structural rigging of the elections because opposition parties were stifled of cash.
The second was the loss of independence of political parties if they got funding from outside forces and foundations in return for post-election favours.
There was fear that this could compromise the security of State and damage the independence of political parties.
While these are noble reasons, the desire to create an even playing field brought about the Political Parties Act.
The Act of Parliament was not only supposed to regulate the emergence of briefcase parties, but also put structures to the multi-party democracy by having the state fund solid parties.
While this in theory ought to be the norm, we are a bit hesitant to give it a stamp of approval for obvious reasons.
First, political parties should be raising funds for their upkeep from people, businesses, and foundations that support their ideals and it should not be taken that all taxpayers have a duty to fund political activities.
There are many Kenyans out there who are apolitical and do not subscribe to ideals propagated by the tens of parties in our books.
Why should their money go towards such politicians?
Secondly, there are no structures to audit the use of the money dished out to the politicians and this leaves room for embezzlers and itchy fingers to account for the money.
Politicians have been unable to run the Constituency Development Funds or even, among themselves, account for the millions of money they raise during election time.
Why do we think that they will account for taxpayers' money?
In a word, we might end up creating a new cash cow for the political elite; a shed where they can milk our money as we watch.
Will this money be used for political expenditure only or is it a blank cheque to party headquarters?
There should be tough checks and balances on how these funds are used and on what items political parties procure.
This is the only way we can feel that the political parties are becoming accountable, not only for the money we give them but on the promise that they can run the State coffers for us.
In order to achieve that level of integrity, we call for total vigilance on the political parties and this can only be done independent of the politicians and by independent auditors.
We say that because most State-funded projects have always had a slice of scandal and before we release the funds we must ask ourselves the basic questions.
Funding of the political parties might become our waking nightmare if we do not put in place structures that will guide parties on how to use taxpayers' money.
By agreeing to fund political parties - minus structures - we have essentially thrown good money into the abyss and expect little return.
We are actually trusting politicians to use the money to build viable political institutions that can withstand tribal scrutiny.
While funding political parties can be a noble exercise for an emerging democracy, we must demand accountability as a minimum.
There are no two ways.
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