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Members of Parliament on the legal affairs committee have asked the Electoral Commission to find ways of reducing the cost of the general election.

The EC is seeking 1.1 trillion shillings in the next financial year to enable them to fulfill their mandate, which the legislators feel is too high.

The arguments came to light as EC secretary Leonard Mulekwah was appearing before the parliament committee on legal on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

Mulekwah informed the MPs that in the next financial year, they have only been allocated 150.1 billion shillings out of the desired budget of 1.1 trillion shillings.

According to him, some of the unfunded priorities include shillings 756.9 billion for general elections activities, shillings 13.3 billion to conduct byelections, and three billion for continuous civic and voter education and training activities.

However, the legislators on the committee, including Remegio Achia (Pian County) and Wilfred Niwagaba (Ndorwa East) asked the commission to find ways of making elections cheaper and noted that some of the funds like the shillings 500 million to hold prayer breakfasts for elections are not necessary.

EC is supposed to prepare for the general election which is slated to take place early 2026. This means that the actual nominations and campaigns are slated for late 2025.