MP claims Jubilee spent millions of shillings in Malindi, see figure

PHOTO/DPPS

– Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff has claimed that Jubilee coalition used KSh 300 million to bribe voters in the Malindi by-election. He said the funds were proceeds of multi-million shilling corruption scandals that have rocked the Jubilee administration

– ODM candidate Willy Mtengo won the by-election by beating Jubilee’s Philip Charo by by 15,582 votes to 9,243. The seat had been left vacant following appointment of Dan Kazungu as minister for mining

Jubilee coalition spent millions of shillings to woo voters in Malindi, an opposition MP has said.

Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff, on Friday, March 11, claimed that the ruling coalition used funds looted from the Eurobond, National Youth Service and the Youth Enterprise Development Fund to campaign in Malindi.

“They used KSh 300 million to buy 9,000 votes,” said Shariff as quoted by The Star.

Their efforts did not bare fruits as the Malindi resident refused to be bought, the MP indicated.

ODM candidate in the March 7, Malindi by-election Willy Mtengo defeated Jubilee’s Philip Charo by 15,582 votes to 9,243.

Ganze MP Peter Shehe, allied to Jubilee, told the paper that Shariff’s allegations were not true despite some of the coalition members being arrested in the constituency.

Kabete MP Ferdinand Waititu and his Mwea counterpart Peter Gitau were arrested in the voting day for allegedly bribing voters. ODM Communication Director Philip Etale was also arrested over suspicions of having voting materials.

A senior State House official had also faulted claims that Jubilee was using state funds for campaigns in Kericho and Malindi.

Munyori Buku, external communications director at the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit, told a local paper that the ruling coalition was using funds given to its political parties.

“The two parties in Jubilee – URP and TNA – were using funds from the Political Parties Fund, which awards funds depending on the number of MPs each side has,” Daily Nation reported on Sunday, March 6.

According to Section 24 (1) (a) of the Political Parties Act, parties are entitled to at least 0.3% of the total revenue collected in a year by the national government.

Currently, only three political parties get money from the fund. Court ruled that only parties that got at least 5% of the total votes cast during March 2013 polls should be funded by the taxpayers.

The parties that get the money are: President Uhuru Kenyatta’s TNA, his deputy William Ruto’s URP and former prime minister Raila Odinga’s ODM. In the first year of Jubilee administration; TNA got KSh 89.3 million, ODM KSh 87.4 million while URP was given KSh 28.2 million.

Jubilee, Cord and Kanu are said to have spent a combined total of over KSh 1 billion in campaigns for their candidates in the two by-elections.

This article was first published on Tuko

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