Kenya finance ministry seeks $100 million for repeat poll

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Kenya’s Finance Ministry on Wednesday asked parliament to approve an allocation of around 100 million US dollars to finance the repeat presidential election slated for October 26.

The request is part of a mini-budget that will result in a 226-million-US-dollar increase in the budget for the current financial year.

The supplementary budget is a mix of allocations to fund the unprecedented repeat of the presidential election and measures to tackle effects of the prolonged drought.

“The overall cumulative changes under the Supplementary Estimates amount to 22.3 billion or 0.8 percent of the original budget,” Finance Minister Henry Rotich said during the tabling of the mini-budget tabled in the National Assembly on Wednesday morning.

Kenyans are set to head back to the ballot on October 26 following the Supreme Court’s nullification of the August 8 election. The court cited electoral malpractices – particularly in the votes transmission process – as the reason for the cancellation of that poll.

That received heavy criticism from the ruling Jubilee Party, with President Uhuru Kenyatta terming it a “judicial coup.” However, the president said he accepted the verdict, even though he did not agree with it.

IEBC earlier this month announced that the new election will only have President Uhuru and opposition leader Raila Odinga on the ballot. The initial vote had a total of eight candidates running for the presidency.

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