On 21 November 2018, a funding fight inside the National Super Alliance (NASA) sharpened after ODM and Wiper moved to redirect lawmakers’ monthly contributions away from the coalition secretariat and back to their own party accounts.
Under the coalition arrangement, all NASA affiliate MPs were expected to contribute Sh10,000 a month to the alliance. A matching amount was also being sent to the individual parties’ accounts, leaving NASA with a combined Sh1,520,000 every month from MPs’ subscriptions, or Sh18,240,000 a year.
Wiper began the process by writing to National Assembly Clerk Michael Sialai, asking that its members’ contributions be sent to the party instead of the coalition. Wiper executive director Jared Siso said the party had acted on instructions from its National Executive Council.
“I did write a letter to the Clerk from instruction of our party’s NEC that our members’ contributions are needed in the party first. As a party, we didn’t feel the accountability aspect of the Nasa secretariat on how the money was being used,” Wiper executive director Jared Siso said on the phone yesterday.
ODM then followed with its own letter to Sialai. National Assembly Minority Leader and ODM chairman John Mbadi directed that the lawmakers’ contributions be channelled to the party.
The dispute exposed the coalition’s dependence on deductions from MPs and senators. NASA was made up of ODM, ANC, Wiper and Ford Kenya, and its secretariat was being financed through those parliamentary contributions.
NASA has since gone to the Political Parties Tribunal seeking to keep receiving the monthly deductions. The coalition’s parliamentary strength at the time stood at 152 members across both Houses, with ODM holding the largest share at 76 MPs and 20 senators. Wiper had 23 MPs and three senators, ANC had 14 MPs and three senators, while Ford Kenya had 12 members in the National Assembly and one senator.
The row marked another public split in the opposition alliance as the parties fought over control, accountability and the use of members’ money.
