On the face of it, the conduct of general elections in any country is an important aspect of democracy. But it entails huge costs. It gets more worrisome when re-runs and run-offs are involved. The expenses could go off the roof. Take the case of Kenya in 2017. The Treasury Department has announced that it cost taxpayers about 536 million dollars to conduct the two elections held in that country last year.
According to the Treasury, the two elections, one held on August 8 and the second on October 26, following the annulment of the first presidential poll, were financed through two budgets of financial year 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018.
In a report released last Friday, the Treasury Department said, “The general election was prolonged after the Supreme Court nullified the August 8, 2017 results.
It explained that the fresh poll resulted in adjustment in the budget for both the direct and indirect expenses toward the general election, pushing up costs to make the period the most expensive electioneering period in the East African nation’s history.
As the report explained, “Out of the total allocation of 643 million dollars for election in the two financial years, 536 million dollars or 83.3 per cent of budget was spent by the end of December 2017. This includes 224 million dollars in the first financial year and 312 million dollars in the second”.
The money allocated for direct election expenses was used by the electoral commission on activities that included the recruitment of election officials, training, registration of voters, inspection of voter registers, procurement of election materials and equipment, packaging and distribution of election materials and clearing of candidates.
The report further stated that the services offered by the police and the intelligence unit consumed the budget on indirect expenses. The Treasury explained that the objective of the report is to provide a review of election related expenditure and evaluate its economic performance.
