Kenyan Lawmakers Throw Out Draft Campaign Financing Legislation
Kenyan Lawmakers Throw Out Draft Campaign Financing Legislation
Kenyan lawmakers rejected proposed regulations to cap presidential election campaign financing to about $40 million, which was aimed at creating an equal playing field for candidates and preventing the abuse of state resources.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission “unjustifiably delayed” publication of the regulations, which should have been in place at least a year before the Aug. 9, 2022 election, according to a committee report that lawmakers voted on. Members of parliament said the proposed rules were unconstitutional, drafted in “bad faith” and lacked sufficient input from the public.
An initial attempt at regulating campaign spending was made before the vote held in 2017, but was delayed after the elections agency failed to meet statutory deadlines in publishing the rules, according to the committee report.
The draft Election Campaign Financing Regulations by the IEBC capped presidential campaign spending at 4.4 billion shillings ($40 million) and political party budgets at 17.7 billion shillings. They also proposed to limit a single-source donation to 20% of the cap and outlawed contributions by foreign governments.
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