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Political Parties Act still toothless

Six years after its enactment, the Political Parties Act remains toothless, crippled by the absence of regulations, enabling politicians to evade accountability and transparency, it has emerged.

The law, passed in December 2018, was meant to bring accountability and transparency to the country’s political system.

Blamed the lack of regulations: Tenthani

However, without guidelines on how to implement its provisions, the Act remains largely ineffective, the new Political Parties registrar Kizito Tenthani has confirmed.

He said: “Any Act of Parliament needs regulations that guide its implementation. This one lacks regulations to guide the registrar, political parties or indeed people like yourself on how to request for information.”

At the heart of the Act is a provision requiring political parties to disclose their financiers.

This was a bold step towards curbing the influence of illicit money in politics.

For example, Section 27 (b) provided that the source of every donation, “whether in cash or in kind and whether once off or cumulatively, with a monetary value of at least K1 000 000 from an individual donor and of at least K2 000 000 from an organisation shall, within 90 days of its receipt, be declared to the registrar by the political party concerned.”

Yet, the absence of regulations has left this and other critical provisions dormant, enabling parties to operate without financial transparency or accountability.

Tenthani, who rose to the position in April last year, was responding to our query on holding political parties to account for their convention funders.

All the key political parties held their indabas last year ahead of the September 16 2025 General Elections.

“I am prioritising the development of regulations. These regulations are not made by Parliament, but by officers who have the responsibility to implement that Act. In this case, it’s the office of the registrar of Political Parties,” he explained.

To address these challenges, Tenthani’s office has set up a reference group comprising legal experts, civil society representatives and other stakeholders.

This group aims to review the Act, propose model regulations, consult widely with political parties and other interested groups.

The proposed regulations are expected to address party registration, deregistration processes, financial oversight and complaints handling, according to a reference on the regulations formulation which Nation on Sunday has seen.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee acting chairperson Yusuf Nthenda said they are saddened by the lack of regulations for what he termed as a critical law to bring sanity to party politics.

“This is the whole reason we encourage ministries, departments and agencies to draw regulations within the shortest period whenever they try to come up with a law.

“Unfortunately, what we see these days is the passing of a good law which cannot be used simply because there are no regulations,” he said.

Nthenda suspected that some State institutions ‘deliberately’ delay the regulations to prevent enforcement of a particular law to protect their interests.

Kensington Leadership Institute director Peter Chinoko expressed concern over the prolonged delay, attributing it to a lack of political will and institutional capacity.

“It raises serious questions about the commitment to bringing sanity and accountability to political parties,” he stated.

“This situation suggests a lack of political will to implement meaningful reforms, depriving the registrar tools to do his job effectively,” he said.

The Political Parties Act, among others, bars public institutions from sponsoring political parties and prohibits politicians seeking public office from issuing handouts.

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