Muchemi Wachira
9 November 2009
Nairobi — After weeks of wrangling, the Party of National Unity (PNU) on Monday finally agreed on the sharing of a Sh48 million bounty from the Political Parties' Fund.
A meeting at the boardroom of the Registrar of Political Parties, Ms Lucy Ndung'u, attended by representatives from most of the parties in the coalition, ended the discord that brought to the fore festering differences within the alliance.
It was the culmination of a series of meetings called to discuss the sharing of the pie since Ms Ndung'u drew up the guidelines on how the Sh200 million allocated to registered political parties in the current national budget would be shared out.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), the largest party in the country in terms of representation in Parliament, will get the biggest share of the fund, with PNU running a close second.
A section of the latter's affiliate parties has been opposed to the idea of splitting the money, saying it would better be kept by the mother party, a proposal met with indignation by other parties within the coalition.
The alliance comprises Kanu, the Democratic Party of Kenya (DP), Ford Kenya, Safina, Narc Kenya, Agano, Mazingira, Shirikisho, the National Alliance Party of Kenya and the Independent Party (TIP).
Monday's resolution was put in writing, and sources said it was arrived at with little dissent.
The meeting was chaired by one of the PNU vice-chairmen, Mr Jimmy Angwenyi.
According to records by the Registrar of Political Parties, the country has 47 registered political parties, compared with the 250 in the run-up to the 2007 General Election.
The majority of them, however, failed to meet a December 31, 2008 deadline for registration, and were removed from the register.
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