Leading political parties are set to pocket billions of shillings from aspirants seeking nomination for the various electoral posts.
Each of the ODM, TNA, WDM, URP and UDF presidential aspirants have each paid their respective parties a minimum of Sh1 million nomination fee.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga from ODM, Kalonzo Musyoka in WDM, Uhuru Kenyatta from TNA and Musalia Mudavadi in UDF paid the fees before their respective nominations. Some like Musyoka and Ruto however stepped down later to support Raila and Uhuru in separate coalition arrangements.
The bulk of the money will come from other elective posts other than the president which have attracted numerous aspirants.
Male contestants seeking the TNA ticket to run for governor or the senate will have to pay Sh250,000 while their female colleagues, the youth and the disabled as well as those vying for women representatives will have to pay Sh100,000 each.
For example, TNA will be able to collect a cool Sh80 million if each county has an average of three aspirants each seeking the party's nomination for women representative, senate, and county governor.
In some counties, especially in Central Kenya where more than five people will be battle for the party ticket, the TNA is likely to nearly double this amount.
Those seeking nominations on the ODM ticket will have to pay up to Sh300,000 each as fees. The fee is the same for all aspirants for the different electoral positions. In some areas such as Homa Bay County, aspirants are being asked to pay an extra Sh50,000 as a "show of commitment' to the party before they go for the nominations.
With just hours before the nominations begin, the five leading parties are keeping the number of applications they have received a well guarded secret. They have all extended the period for aspirants to submit their papers to be considered for nominations.
Yesterday the chairman of the ODM election Board Franklin Bett said they had received and processed nearly 6,000 applications.
"We have meticulously dealt with most of the applications and disqualified those who do not meet the qualifications," said Bett as he supervised the dispatching of nomination materials across the country.
The parties are also demanding that male aspirants for the National Assembly pay up to Sh100,000 while the women will pay Sh75,000. Thus a party that is able to attract five male aspirants per constituency will pocket Sh145 million from the nominations at this level not to mention the fees paid by the women and the persons with disabilities.
This translates to a combined income of approximately Sh1.2 billion in revenues to ODM, TNA, WDM, UDF and URP from presidential, governor, senate, women representatives and National Assembly aspirants.
Martha Karua's Narc Kenya has also attracted its fair share of aspirants. Karua, who was nominated as the party's presidential aspirant paid a Sh635,000 nomination fee.
At least 12 aspirants have expressed in vying for each of the senate and gubernatorial posts; 250 have interest in become county assembly ward representatives and 62 aspirants for the national assembly.
The flower party is demanding Sh190,000 for those seeking to become governors. According to a notice inviting application from aspirants, male senate and national assembly aspirants are required to pay Sh132,500, women will pay Sh75,000 the same as women county representatives, youth representatives will pay Sh55,000 and those with disabilities will pay ShSh45,000. Those seeking the county representative positions are paying Sh22,500.
The 2010 constitution created a total of 1,882 positions that are being contested in the March 4 General Elections. They consist of the president, 47 governors, senators and women representatives each, 290 MPs and 1,450 county ward representatives. The President and the governor will each have a running mate as per the law.
In previous elections, Kenyans only voted for a president, 210 MPs and over 4,000 councillors.
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