Raila Odinga-led Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) suffered a huge setback on Wednesday after losing a bid to recover Sh4.1 Billion.
High Court judge Roslyne Aburili dismissed a case by ODM that sought to recover the amount from the Political Parties Fund.
ODM told the court that it had received Sh100 Million from the Fund as opposed to the full amount set by law.
[caption caption="ODM Chairman John Mbadi"]
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The Party demanded payment of arrears accrued between 2012 and 2016 but Judge Aburili ruled that she could not force the taxpayer to pay the arrears as ODM never demanded the money.
She added that the fund set aside from the national revenue was not a debt and thus could not be paid if it was not allocated by the National Assembly at the time.
“The Party waited for four financial years to demand the money, yet it knew that Parliament had not been allocating the correct figures.
“It will not be in the interests of justice or public policy for the amount to be released to the party,” stated Aburili.
According to the Constitution, Parliament should allocate not less than 0.3 percent of the total revenue collected by the national government every year to the Political Parties Fund.
The law requires that 95 percent of the fund is distributed proportionately by reference to the total number of votes secured by each political party in the preceding General Election.
The rest is retained for administrative costs. Only parties with at least five per cent of the total votes in the poll are entitled to public funding.
[caption caption="ODM Offices"]
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