At last, funding for political parties

Kenyan political parties will have to consider pegging their operations on definite programmes rather than personality and ethnicity if they are to benefit from a Dutch programme of political parties in East and Southern Africa.
The multifaceted Inter-Party Platform—sponsored by the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy (IMD) and managed by selected organisations in the region—is in response to the realisation that lack of access to resources and weak management structures, have been the biggest threat to the growth of multi-party democracy in the region.
But the tough preconditions formulated by the recently-established Centre for Multi-Party Democracy (CMD) Kenya with the support of IMD, could also help weed out a number of "briefcase" parties that lie dormant and only spring to life during election time, since only parties with definite programmes will qualify.
Neither is IMD willing to reveal the amount set aside for the programme that has attracted the attention of most cash-trapped Kenyan political parties who are currently struggling to meet the conditions. "We are not talking about figures here. But we are ready to support every good program any party might come up with," said Mr Renier Nijskens, the IMD Regional Representative for Eastern and Southern Africa, who conceded that Kenyan political parties have been very keen to know what is in the kitty.
The lack of resources leaves most political parties at the mercy of wealthy party leaders who use them the advance their personal interests. The programme will go on irrespective of the passage of the Political Parties Bill that has been pending in parliament, but which seek to legalise funding of political parties by the state. Launched in mid 2003, the programme besides offering party-funding, has a broader objective of encouraging political parties to embrace cross-party dialogue particularly on national matters that transcend narrow partisan political interests, as well as enhance internal party democracy.
To qualify for funding, parties must be affiliate members of the CMD by either having a member of parliament, or five elected members of any local authority. Parties currently Parties currently affiliated to CMD include the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), Kanu, Ford-Asili, Ford-People, National Labour Party, Sisi Kwa Sisi, Safina, Social Democratic Party and Shirikisho.
But more stringent conditions are that parties must set up definite programmes that they can be identified with as opposed to individuals, carry out internal reforms of their electoral system to encourage wider participation of the grassroots, empower marginalised groups such as women, youth and the disabled, and create mechanism for inter-party dialogue that would encourage bipartisan approach on matters of national interest.
According to the funding programme formulated by the CMD, all the qualified parties will share equally 50 percent of the total amount that will be provided. 30 percent of the amount will be divided according to parliamentary strength, and the remaining 20 percent will be divided among parties that have shown strong commitment to gender issues. But according to the secretary to the CMD board, Dr Carey Francis Onyango, the interests parties have shown towards the programme is not motivated purely by the prospects of funding but a realisation by parties across the board that they will be nowhere in the near future if they don't embrace corporate governance and transparency in all their operations.
So far, the former ruling party Kanu that held its national election in January, has been the major beneficiary of the programme, when the CMD partially funded its convention. But as all political parties welcome the IMD programme, there is a growing unease among major parties that the CMD membership as currently structured is giving too much representation to smaller parties at the expense of the bigger one.
Some NARC members are already complaining that the coalition of 15 parties is under-represented given that it has the same slots as smaller parties. Each party affiliated to CMD is represented by five nominees, who will be responsible for designing mechanism for inter-party dialogue and collaboration.
Already, lobbying is going on to allow each of the constituent parties to nominate representatives, a request Dr Onyango says is being considered, but can only be effected by changing the CMD constitutional provision on representation. The unease, according to Kanu secretary general William Ruto, is because bigger parties feel that it is unfair to share the cake equally with smaller parties "some of which operate like family businesses". But more challenging to CMD, is the task of convincing political parties that normally relate to each other with suspicion, to embrace cross-party dialogue particularly on national matters that transcend narrow partisan political interests.
Besides Kenya, the programme is underway in South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. The IMD Executive Director, Roel Von Meijenfeldt, said that the inter-party platform is meant to reduce tension and enhance mutual respect that have been lacking in the inter-party relationships, marked by acrimony and raw competition for political power. IMD—having succeeded in developing cross-party dialogue in Nertherlands, Asia, Latin America and Africa—believes that increased interaction would help political parties in the region understand each other better, create better alliances within and without their countries and consequently build stronger regional groupings based on mutual trust, informed choices and shared vision.
The IMD programme operates under the premise that whereas most African countries previously under the yoke of one party system embraced multi-party democracy in the early 1990s, they hardly play their roles as the building blocks of democracy and as a platform for public participation of citizens in governance and policy-making.