Running for Presidency? Have Sh4.4 billion as campaign limit

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has set a spending limit of about Sh4.4 billion for anyone intending to vie for the presidential seat in the 2027 General Election.

An IEBC document detailing the determination of the election campaign finance spending limits for the 2027 General Election has shown that the Commission considered two approaches to determine what a presidential campaign should use.

The first, says IEBC, involves costing all allowable expenses involved in a presidential campaign to obtain the total average cost of the campaign, while the second approach was about obtaining the average cost of the lower electoral levels.

“The average costs obtained are then used to estimate the unit cost associated with the two factors of population and land area, which is then used to estimate the presidential spending limit at each electoral level. The commission adopted the second approach due to the availability of the average cost at the lower electoral levels,” the IEBC states.

“The presidential limit of Sh4.4 billion was determined from the average limit obtained from the spending limit in three electoral levels,” the Commission explained.

For the county election campaign limits, the IEBC has also set the amount that each candidate – Governor, Senator, County Women Representative to the National Assembly.

The highest spending limit has been set in Nairobi at Sh117.32 million for each of the positions, Sh123 million in Turkana, Sh114.7 million in Marsabit, Sh103.7 million in Wajir, Sh88.7 million in Wajir, Sh77.8 million in Kitui, Sh72.2 million in Nakuru and Sh71.9 million in Kiambu, taking into consideration the approximate area in square kilometres.

The lowest limit is in Lamu at Sh21.9 million, Sh23.14 million in Tharaka Nithi, Sh25.13 million in Elgeyo Marakwet, Sh25.16 million in Vihiga and Sh25.98 million in Nyamira.

The IEBC Chairman Erastus Ethekon has now invited the public to submit memoranda on the draft Campaign Financing regulations and the election campaign contribution, spending limits and authorised expenditures.

In a public notice, the Ethekon said that the Constitution, under Article 88(4)(i), mandates IEBC to regulate the amount of money that may be spent by or on behalf of a candidate or party in respect of any election.

To operationalise this, the Election Campaign Financing Act, Cap 7A, provides for the regulation, management, expenditure and accountability of campaign funds, with candidates and parties self-regulating under IEBC oversight.

He also explained that Section 29 of the Act empowers the Commission to issue regulations on expenditure rules, contributions, disclosures, monitoring, record keeping and related matters.

“Sections 12, 18 and 19 require the Commission to prescribe contributions, spending limits and authorised expenditures by gazette notice at least 12 months before a general election. Pursuant to Sections 12, 18 and 19 of the Act, the Commission, in readiness for the 2027 General Election, has developed the draft regulations, contributions, authorised expenditures and spending limits,” Ethekon stated.

IEBC has since invited the public to submit memoranda on the draft regulations on or before July 15.

At the same time, the IEBC explained that the political parties' limit assumes that all parties will field candidates across all electoral levels.

To this end, the Commission explained that political parties' limits are based on the spending limits for each electoral level for each candidate.

This means that the total spending limits at each electoral level have been set at Sh5.62 billion for the Wards, another Sh5.25 billion at the constituency level, some Sh2.39 billion at the county level and Sh4.4 billion for the presidential.

“Therefore, the total campaign expenditure limit for any political party will be at Sh17.7 billion,” the Commission has stated.

The Commission further broke down the Sh17.7 billion on the items political parties are expected to spend and the limit.

For venues, the parties are expected to spend at least Sh274.57 million, another Sh780.94 million on publicity materials, Sh1.8 billion for advertising and media, limit the cost for campaign personnel at Sh243.7 million and elections agents at least Sh1.52 billion.

Other spending items that the IEBC has highlighted and their limits include transportation capped at Sh11.8 billion, communication at Sh98.27 million, nomination fees at Sh156.53 million, security capped at Sh20.87 million, accommodation at Sh18.2 million and administrative costs capped at Sh945.95 million.

For the National Assembly election campaign, the limits on the amount range from Sh12 million to about Sh54 million.

According to the draft Election Campaign Financing Regulation, 2026, the expenditure period in the case of a general election shall be the period beginning at least six months before the date of the election and ending on the fourteenth day following the end of the election.

In the case of a by-election, it is the period beginning on the date of declaration of the vacancy and ending on the seventh day following the declaration of the results.

“A political party, candidate, supporting person or organisation or their authorised persons shall open, for the sole purpose of the political party, candidate’s election campaign or referendum campaign as the case may be, a separate bank account in a registered deposit-taking financial institution domiciled in Kenya,” the regulations state.

The name of the account shall be under that of a party if opened by the officials so authorised in accordance with the party constitution, under the name of the candidate to be operated by the candidate jointly with at least one other authorised person or under the joint names of authorised persons.

The regulations state that all financial transactions in relation to the political party, referendum committee or candidate’s campaign that involve the payment or receipt of money shall be paid from or deposited into the account.

Within three months after the declaration of election or referendum results upon the withdrawal or death of a candidate, the candidate or authorised person shall close the account and submit a copy of the bank statement to the Commission once all unpaid claims and surplus electoral funds have been dealt with in accordance with the Act.

“The authorised person shall submit to the commission an original copy of the bank statement with the final campaign financing report,” the Regulations provide.

Where a candidate, political party or referendum committee receives contributions through a harambee, the authorised person is to keep a record setting out the date and venue, names of each donor or contributor who donated or contributed to the harambee, name of each donor who contributed more than Sh20,000 and the exact amount as well as a tally of the total amount contributed.

Similarly, the authorised person shall cause the donations and contributions given at the harambee to be deposited in the campaign bank account.

The Regulations have also stated that money provided by way of a loan to the candidate or political party shall form part of the contribution for the campaign finance, provided the loan is borrowed from an authorised financial institution or any other law.

If the contribution mentioned was made through a proxy, they must disclose to the relevant authorised person the name of the contributor, postal address, identification number and PIN, whether the person is not a Kenyan resident and the amount of contribution.