The Orange Democratic Party (ODM) on Tuesday, September 29, called out the government for the dragged payment of their Ksh.8 Billion debt.
ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna lashed out stating that based on the annual disbursements from the National Treasury, it was conceivable that it could take the government 40 years to settle the debt.
"The debt owed to ODM party by treasury now stands at Kshs.7.7B shillings. This financial year Parliament allocated 200M only towards the settlement of the debt meaning it will take close to 40 years to fully pay up at that rate!" stated Sifuna.
This came after ODM published its statement of comprehensive income for the year ended June 30, 2020.
The statement revealed that the Political Parties fund owed ODM Ksh7,625,909,103 as at June up from Ksh6,554,904,206 in 2019.
ODM received Ksh69,908,190 through public contributions and donations, down from Ksh78,506,208 in the previous period.
ODM saw an increase in the expenditure on conferences and meetings from Ksh10,536,170 in 2019 to Ksh30,565,816.
Administrative expenses however dropped from Ksh170,767,810 in 2019 to Ksh114,477,150 in 2020 but campaign expenses increased to Ksh59,540,389 from Ksh19,938,978.
The Political Parties Act was enacted so that public funding can limit the influence of interested money, thereby help in curbing corruption.
The Act also aimed to create a level playing field between all political parties in the country as previously the 'big' parties enjoyed an advantage.
Political parties are funded by contributions from multiple sources with one of the largest sources of coming from the National Government, party members and individual supporters through membership fees, dues, subscriptions and small donations.
