- The commission had wanted Parliament to allocate it Sh14.3 billion in the next fiscal period.
- The commission requires Sh7.2 billion for boundaries delimitation and Sh2.6 for pending legal fees.
Image: FILE
The country's long-awaited boundaries review now hangs in the balance with the electoral commission facing a shortfall of Sh9.8 billion.
The commission has been allocated Sh4.5 billion in the 2023/24 budget despite requiring Sh7.2 billion for boundaries delimitation and Sh2.6 billion for pending legal fees.
The commission had wanted Parliament to allocate it Sh14.3 billion in the next fiscal period.
Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) Chair George Murugara on Wednesday told the National Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee that there will be no boundaries review if money is not allocated.
“We haven’t been given any money for boundaries delimitation, they are asking for Sh7.2 billion. If you don’t do this, we have no clue what the court will do. Possibly they may try to disband some of us,” Murugara told the Ndindi Nyoro-led committee.
A periodic review of constituency boundaries is necessary to keep up with population growth to accommodate new constituencies for populous units.
This will in turn guarantee equitable representation and fair distribution of resources such as constituency funds.
According to the breakdown of the Sh7.2 billion for boundary delimitation, Sh1.1 billion has been budgeted for wages, Sh0.6 billion for equipment, Sh1.3 billion for legal fees and Sh0.4 billion for ICT.
The poll agency has allocated Sh0.3 billion for capacity building during the countrywide process and Sh1.2 billion for post-voter registration after reviewing constituency boundaries.
The number of electoral units may reduce or increase depending on the population quota.
Public Education and Partnership is set to cost the poll commission Sh1.2 billion while Communication during the exercise will take up Sh1.1 billion.
Separately, the IEBC requires Sh2.6 billion to pay for pending legal fees by legal firms that have handled legal cases for the poll body since 2013.
This takes the commission's budget shortfall to Sh9.8 billion.
The crisis is that the longer the bills remain unpaid the more they accrue interest which is an extra expense to the taxpayers.
“Lawyers' bills are going up every day, they are taxing. They are just waiting for us to constitute the IEBC and they will start locking them up at the commission,” Murugara said.
In the breakdowns of the legal fees, routine constitutional and civil cases incurred (Sh1.76bn), presidential election petitions of the August 9, 2022 election (Sh567.3mn), and pre-election petitions on political parties and dispute resolutions (Sh479.2mn).
IEBC is responsible for the demarcation of electoral boundaries guided by population and other considerations set out in law.
According to Article 89 (5) of the Constitution, constituency boundaries are such that the number of inhabitants in the constituency is as nearly as possible to the population quota.
Article 89 of the Constitution requires IEBC to review names and boundaries of electoral areas at intervals of not less than eight years and not more than 12 years.
The creation of new electoral units was initially planned prior to last August’s elections, but tight deadlines ruled out the exercise.
This prompted the polls body to resort to the last constitutionally imposed timeline that is now fast approaching without substantial progress.
There are pointers that the number of constituencies, currently capped by the Constitution at 290, will most likely be affected given the surge in population has pushed the population quota to 164,015, up from 133,000 that informed the 290 constituencies in 2010.
Population quota is the figure obtained after dividing Kenya’s 2019 population of 47,564,296 by the number of constituencies.