Thread by @steveogollaw

#JustIn
IEBC has gazetted Election Campaign Contribution and Spending Limits for parties and candidates. Presidential Candidates may raise and spend upto Kshs. 4.4Billion. Nairobi Gubernatorial Candidates may raise and spend upto Kshs. 117Million. 1/9

Individual contributions must not exceed 20% of the prescribed spending limits. This is to avoid moneyed contributors single handedly financing and owning candidates and creating a possibility of quid pro quo post-election corruption. 2/9

Remember, all contributions and spending can only be done by IEBC authorised Expenditure Committees. Any money raised and spent outside the Expenditure Committee is ILLEGAL and constitutes an offence punishable by a fine of upto Ksh. 2M or 5yrs imprisonment. 3/9

The Expenditure Committees will be established by candidates upon being cleared by IEBC. It is therefore ILLEGAL to raise and spend campaign money outside the official Expenditure Period, which is the Official Election Campaign Period, commencing May 30, 2022.
4/9

There is a legitimate public interest in regulating Election Campaign Finance. While money is necessary to support candidate emergence, excessive use of money may have the twin potential of altering public choice processes and producing leaders of dubious integrity. 5/9

Article 88(4)(i) of the Constitution demands that IEBC regulates money spent by candidates in elections. Section 12 of the Election Campaign Finance Act requires IEBC to gazette spending limits. These provisions are self-executing and do not require any further Regulations. 6/9

This means Parliament cannot circumvent or subvert the law on Regulation of Campaign Contribution and Spending as they have previously argued. Parliament has always argued that in the absence of Regulations, IEBC cannot lawfully regulate campaign contribution and spending. 7/9

Interesting to note is that Parliament has sat on draft Election Campaign Financing Regulations since 2016, and has blatantly refuse to approve the Regulations as a way of defeating IEBC's constitutionally ordained mandate. In short, MPs do not want campaign money regulated. 8/9

Happily, regulation of Election Campaign Finance is not a matter left to Parliament's discretion to be complied with based on Members' convenience. It is a mandatory constitutional requirement deserving of enforcement, and IEBC must enforce even though the heavens may fall. 9/9