Deputy President William Ruto’s led party, the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) is set to hold what could be termed as the most expensive party nominations since the advent of multi-democracy in the country.
According to a report by The Star, it is projected that UDA will spend more than Ksh 500 million on the nomination in a deliberate plan to ensure a free and fair exercise.
In its elaborate plan, the DPs party plans to hire 100,000 polling station clerks, 128 constituency presiding officers, and 47 returning officers to manage the exercise that is set to commence on April 14.
Addressing the press on Monday, April 4, DP Ruto revealed that the party intends to use 45 million ballot papers with 30 million ballot papers already printed.
“I want to assure our members that there will be free and fair nominations starting Thursday next week. Necessary arrangements have been made and I have personally been supervising that exercise the last two days,” DP Ruto said
Hypothetically if the party pays each clerk Ksh 2,000 for the day-long exercise like in the past, then the party will spend Ksh 200 million on clerks alone.
On ballot papers, the cost will depend on the security features to be embedded but roughly it might cost Ksh 50 million.
Other logistic issues that might push up the cost include, securing the ballot boxes, transportation, and security at the polling stations.
Like its rival party ODM, DP Ruto’s party is also expected to deploy electronic transmission of the results as a way of enhancing credibility.
According to a senior UDA official, the results will then be relayed to the National UDA Command Centre at the Hustler National Centre where the DP and the elections board will be based.
“The transmission will mirror the transmission of the results of the national elections and will serve as a test run for our elections transmission infrastructure,” a senior UDA official told the Star.
