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"content": "respectively. That is achievable if a party is serious. A party should also have three elected governors, and 40 members of County Assemblies (MCAs).This is very important because it also helps parties demonstrate that they are not what is now commonly called “briefcase operators,” but they are parties with structures in counties and many other places. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am very proud of the party I lead because we have MCAs in Meru, Mandera, Garissa, Marsabit, the whole of western Kenya counties, Turkana, and Kwale County. We have a Member of the National Assembly all over. People should emulate this kind of a national spread so that we can institutionalise nationalism in our party politics. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, equally important - and I am very proud of it - is the fact that this Bill was brought by a member of the CORD and within CORD, a member of FORD-Kenya; Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale. The one in the National Assembly was also brought by a member of our party, Hon. ChrisWamalwa trying to help the parties that get swallowed and oppressed by larger parties around them. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this brings me to the point of the problem of the Treasury funding political parties. If you look at the Constitution, it provides for 0.03 per cent of the national Budget. If you calculate 0.03 per cent of the national Budget, in a budget of Kshs2.3 trillion, you come to a fund of close to Kshs7 billion. When you look at what Treasury is doing, they have turned a constitutional and mandatory provisional requirement to fund parties into a discretionary fund. They put there the amount of money they want. They do not even address the issue of percentage, but they are trying to do what our former colleague, Hon. Amos Kimunya, was doing with CDF. Instead of adhering to the provisions in the law that it must be 2.5 per cent of the national Budget, he resorted to gimmicks of generosity, telling Parliament that he gave them this much last year and he is now giving them so much. That is not the issue. He could be giving more than the law provides, but what we want them to do is to respect the law. If it is 0.03 per cent, it must be that way. What is being given to political parties is peanuts. It is not even 0.01 per cent of the national Budget. If you look at last year, the total amount of money disbursed to political parties was less than Kshs1.5 billion. That is very little. We are seeing it happening again this financial year. We want Treasury to respect provisions of the law and that of the Constitution. They are very eager to put money on the Standard Gauge Railways (SGR), laptops and all manner of things because there are kickbacks and rent-seeking. Since it is not easy to get kickbacks from political parties, they start playing games with what the law and the Constitution has provided. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to urge that the law must be respected. If we want democracy to flourish in the country, if we want to move away from rich persons and their friends owning political parties, then we must have public participation in the funding of the party. The money does not belong to the Cabinet Secretary, Mr. Henry Rotich at the Treasury. The money belongs to the people of Kenya. We pay taxes, the voters pay taxes and they have a right to expect their parties, for which they have cast their votes for individuals, to be supported by a portion of those taxes. Then somebody sits in the The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}