Report: Kenya's elections cost three times higher than global benchmark figure

The cost of Kenyan elections is three times higher than the global average cost, a new report has revealed.

This even as it proposed for the establishment of an Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Fund, among other measures to lower the cost of forthcoming elections.

The report by the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) notes that Kenya’s elections remain among the most expensive across the world, with the cost being the three times higher than the global benchmark of USD 5 (Sh 645) per voter.

To highlight this, the report draws a comparative analysis on the 2017 and 2022 elections and how much was spent per voter. It indicates that during the 2017 general elections Kenya’s total expenditure on the elections stood at Sh54 billion translating to Sh3,298 per actual voter.  In 2022, the total expenditure amounted to Sh 36 billion translating to Sh2,566 per actual voter.

It explains that Kenya’s high cost of elections emanates from a politics of distrust and limited public confidence in key institutions — a system where institutions must “buy” credibility because citizens, parties and candidates have limited confidence in electoral processes.

Kenya’s elections, says the report are thus shaped as much by politics as by structural conditions: fears of rigging, weak institutional trust and lack of transparency make each election an expensive reassurance exercise.

“The IEBC makes large investments in technology almost every election year to improve on transparency but this is not enough to assure the public and competing political elites that the election will be fair and credible. Security institutions also spend significant amounts on securing the elections, again on the assumption that this would improve credibility and trust. But this ends up increasing the costs of elections without improving on trust levels,” reads the report.

It goes ahead to identify key drivers of the high cost such as a low voter turn out. This, the report notes, is premised on the fact that elections are run on fixed cost and the cost of materials, among others, is based on the assumption that almost everyone registered will turn out to vote.

“Because of this, the failure to participate (after registering as a voter) in an election adds to the costs of elections because materials are already procured and logistics paid for before voting day,” reads the report in part.

It also brings to the fore that in that in Kenya, election financing is event-driven meaning that elections are treated as an event rather than as a continuous process in the governance cycle, and this reduces trust in the electoral processes.

As a result, says the report, the IEBC and institutions in the electoral ecosystem follow a sharp cyclical pattern where more funds are allocated during an election year but limited funding is availed between elections.

“This stop-start model has several consequences such as weakening institutional continuity, compressing procurement timelines, increasing reactive spending, undermining reform implementation and encourages repeated technology procurement,” it reads.

The report, which is part of NIMD’s campaign to promote inclusive electoral reforms  in Kenya, also highlights that the largest cost components include technology, logistics, and security. These expenditures are intensified by compressed timelines and periodic technology replacement rather than amortisation or systematic cost reduction in the long term.

NIMD, through the report, also explains that the true cost of elections extends beyond IEBC and includes the broader electoral ecosystem which includes the Judiciary (petitions and dispute resolution), State Department for Interior (security deployments) ORPP (party oversight) IPOA, and EACC, among others.

“Kenya’s elections are expensive because they operate in a low-trust political environment. Cost of elections will fall only when public trust in institutions improves. It will also fall when elites begin to trust that the process will produce credible results irrespective of whether those results are in their favour or not,” the report reads.

“The politics of mistrust, fear of rigging and limited transparency force institutions to over-invest in reassurance mechanisms. Low trust also depresses voter turnout. For instance, over one third of registered voters did not turn out to vote in 2022 elections. This increased the cost per voter especially because preparations and election materials are done on the assumption that almost all registered voters in some polling stations will turn out to vote,” it adds.

“Even as total spending fell between 2017 and 2022, the cost per voter remained among the highest globally, reflecting the political, rather than purely technical nature of Kenya’s conflated electoral expenses. The true cost of elections is the cost of mistrust—manifested in securitisation, technological redundancy, and legal contestation”

The report further warns that if corrective measures are not effectively implemented in the run up to the next election, then the country should brace for another high-cost General Election.  It reads that the current IEBC budget projections for 2027 suggest a return to near-2017 cost levels, reversing the 2022 cost reductions.

“To achieve sustainable, credible, and affordable elections, Kenya must shift from a security- and technology-driven model to a trust- and transparency-driven model. In essence, the cost of Kenya’s elections will only decrease when the cost of mistrust does,” the report reads.

To achieve the above, the report proposes the establishment of an IEBC Fund by Parliament. The fund's importance, it states, is hinged on the fact that IEBC sometimes postpones implementation of activities only to rush such activities during an election year when funds are available. This stop-go approach undermines institutional capacity and prevents undertaking of key reforms between elections.

“There is a need, therefore, to establish an IEBC Fund (as contemplated by S.18 IEBC Act) to support institutionalisation of election- related activities throughout the election cycle. This will prevent the country and even the National Treasury and Parliament from treating elections as an event. The fund will lead to ensuring that activities in the electoral process are implemented throughout the electoral cycle and with a high degree of predictability. In addition, it may be worthwhile for Parliament to consider a proposal to set aside a specific percentage of the national budget for the IEBC Fund,’ the report adds.

It also implores IEBC to rebuild institutional trust by doing things right and demonstrating high levels of independence in a manner that inspires public confidence, and to transition from one-off procurement of KIEMS kits and servers toward long-term techno-infrastructure and integration with national identification systems to reduce registration costs will add value.

The electoral agency should also invest in transparency as transparency reduces suspicion and, consequently, also reduces the need for expensive technological and security solutions as a way of reassuring voters. It should also accelerate civic and voter education to ensure increased voter turnout during elections.