THE High Court has given the Registrar of Political Parties more time to distribute Shs 200 million allocated to political parties by the government. Lucy Ngung’u has been ordered by Justice KaIpana Rawa to distribute the funds allocated to PNU according to the law. The judge issued the order after hearing an application filed in the High Court by Narc-K. They were seeking orders to compel the registrar to distribute the funds according to the number of parliamentary and civic votes garnered by affiliate parties during the last general election.
When the matter came up for mention, the court was informed by Narc-K lawyer Cecil Miller that the registrar had not yet complied. The judge gave her up to January 21 to distribute the funds among the all the 27 affiliate parties of PNU. Narc-K Chair Martha Karua accused the registrar of abdicating her role of distributing funds to political parties. Justice Rawal had upheld Narc-K lawyer Miller’s legal contention that the registrar did not discharge her duties as required under the law. The judge had also declined the request by the registrar to allow PNU distribute the funds to its affiliates. She rejected the position that all 27 affiliate parties of PNU are a single entity.
She pointed out that Section 30- of the Political Parties Act ‘requires the registrar to allocate the funds according to the number of parliamentary and civic votes garnered by each party. In his submission, Miller told the court that Narc-K delivered over two million votes and is therefore entitled to 80 per cent of the funds allocated to PNU. He said that the law requires each party to get 15 per cent of the funds allocated and the balance to be shared according to the number of votes garnered. The case will be mentioned on January 21 when the registrar is expected to have complied with the court orders.
