Chebukati defends move to cap politicians’ spending in 2022

Members of Parliament have vowed to shoot down IEBC’s move to cap campaigns spending in the 2022 General Election.

The National Assembly’s Committee on Delegated Legislation members on Wednesday morning said they would seek the House’s support in quashing IEBC’s pronouncement on spending, arguing the Wafula Chebukati-led Commission did not seek Parliament’s approval in setting the limits.

On Monday, August 9, IEBC released campaign expenditure limits for candidates and parties contesting in the 2022 General Election.

MPs are contesting the resolve by IEBC capping the campaign expenditure, arguing that the agency submitted the regulations late.

Chebukati, however, on Wednesday said the Commission had a meeting with the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) early last year, in which they discussed and prepared the amendments in the regulations act.

“As a Commission, we sat down and prepared the amendments, and it is unfortunate that until now they have not been submitted before the House and approved,” said Chebukati.

He also reiterated that the regulations in the 2013 Election Campaign Finance Act were the same as those in the 2020 Act.

“The regulations which we have developed and subjected to public participation are the same ones… the Commission has not changed them,” he told the committee.

Gilgil MP Martha Wangari, in response, argued that the public participation conducted in 2016, despite the regulations being the same, cannot be applied to the latest regulations.

“I move that the set regulations be considered as part of the regulations that were meant to go through the process and statutory instrument act as required by the law. If they did not, then they should be nullified,” she said.

The Commission, however, defended its decision to gazette the limits, saying the process was procedural.

“But even then, should the regulations be passed with different parameters, nothing stops the Commission from re-gazetting,” the IEBC said.

On Tuesday, August 10, MPs urged the Committee on Delegated Legislation to stop the IEBC in its tracks over campaigns spending.

The IEBC had announced that the maximum spending limit for each presidential candidate is Sh4,435,565,094.

The most a Governor, MP or Woman Representative candidate can spend during an expenditure period is Sh123,080,609 for Turkana County, while for Nairobi, it stands at Sh117,320,646, while the lowest is Tharaka Nithi’s Sh23,143,009.