Kenyan MPs Reject Campaign Finance Limits
Member of Parliament (MPs) have rejected the campaign finance limits set by Independent Electoral and Boundaries and Commission (IEBC) for the 2022 General Election.
In a notice published in the Kenya Gazette on Monday, August 9th, IEBC announced that presidential contestants would be limited to Ksh 4.4 billion in their campaign spending.
Aspirants eyeing the Gubernatorial, Senatorial, or Woman Representative seats also have their spending regulated with Turkana County having the highest spending limit at Ksh.123 million followed by Nairobi (Ksh.117 million) and Marsabit (114 million).
Political parties will be allowed to spend up to Ksh.17 billion
However, when the MPs met to deliberate in parliament over the new campaign finance rules, they declared it null and void arguing that the electoral body submitted the spending caps late to avoid scrutiny.
Minority Whip and ODM MP Junet Mohamed questioned why IEBC had to wait until the last minute to submit the regulations to parliament.
“The electoral commission was aware that the next General Election was to be held on August 9, 2022. They were aware that people would campaign and they need money. They were also aware that they needed to submit the regulations to parliament for approval. Why wait until the last day?” Mr. Mohamed posed.
On the other hand, Majority Leader Amos Kimunya accused the electoral agency of intentionally bringing the regulations to parliament late so that they could be rejected.
