PNU want parties cash to finance delegates meeting

Monday, 21 March 2011 00:02 BY FRANCIS MUREITHI

OUR CUT: Jimmy Agwenyi, Kiraitu Murungi and Maina Kamanda consult after addressing the media at PNU offices.

THE Party of National Unity is demanding its share from the political parties fund to enable it hold a National Delegates Conference. The party expects the NDC will endorse a decision to pull out of the coalition government.
Party Secretary General Kiraitu Murungi says the delay in releasing the cash had grounded the party’s operations including holding of the NDC.
Kiraitu has accused Narc Kenya, headed by Gichugu MP Martha Karua, of blocking PNU from receiving its share of the cash.“We were supposed to receive money from the political parties fund but Narc Kenya went to court. We defeated them there. Now they have gone to the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal and the matter is stuck there,” said Kiraitu at the party’s headquarters.
In January, Narc Kenya lost the push for a larger share of PNU allocation from political parties fund, and got only Sh2.6m out of them total Sh48.7m following a court order.
The Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u was directed to distribute the funds allocated to the 13 political parties which form the umbrella PNU party.
The registrar was supposed to distribute the Sh48.6 million in accordance with the Political Parties Act and in compliance with a judgment delivered by Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal in November last year. Narc-Kenya through lawyer Cecil Miller last year challenged the decision by the registrar to allow PNU to distribute the funds.
Miller told the judge that PNU had allocated itself 60 per cent of the funds released by the government. The lawyer claimed the registrar had not complied with the rules.
In her judgment of November 19, last year, Justice Rawal directed the registrar to comply with Section 30 (3) (b) of the Political Parties Act.
Under this section, a party with affiliate political parties shall distribute the funds allocated to it in accordance with the number of votes garnered by parliamentary and civic candidates.
The court ruled that the PNU gets Sh23.4million, Narc-K Sh2.9million, Democratic Party (DP) Sh3.5million, Kanu Sh6.9million, Safina Sh4.3 million and Kalembe Ndile's TIP Sh1.034 million. The NDC will bring in 4,200 delegates, 20 each from the 210 constituencies.