Kenya Finally Has Real Campaign Spending Limits: What Each Race Can Spend in 2027

Updated 2 October 2026.

A presidential candidate in Kenya's 10 August 2027 general election may spend at most Sh6.11 billion (Sh6,112,543,133 to the shilling), under the spending limits in the IEBC's Gazette notice of 7 August 2026. The same notice sets a ceiling for every other seat, from Sh181.3 million for a governor, senator or woman representative in Nairobi down to Sh3.49 million for an MCA in Shella ward in Lamu.

Kenya has never before had campaign spending limits in force for a general election.

Where the figures come from

You will find them in Gazette Notice No. 12251, a special issue of the Kenya Gazette (Vol. CXXVIII No. 136) dated 7 August 2026 and signed by IEBC Chairperson Erastus Edung Ethekon. It cites Article 88(4)(i) of the Constitution and sections 12, 18 and 19 of the Election Campaign Financing Act, 2013. Its companion rules, the Election Campaign Financing Regulations, 2026, are Legal Notice 142 of 2026, also dated 7 August.

Each figure comes from a formula printed in the notice's Sixth Schedule. Every level starts from a fixed cost (Sh3,225,105 for a ward, Sh10,795,432 for a constituency and Sh14,406,545 for a county) and adds a unit cost per resident and per square kilometre, with population weighted at 70 per cent and land area at 30 per cent. That is why Turbi, with 20,383 people spread over 10,820 square kilometres, gets twice the ceiling of Embakasi ward in Nairobi, which has 157,198 people on 22.5 square kilometres and a limit of Sh10,682,762.

For your own seat, look up the county in the Second Schedule, the constituency in the Third or the ward in the Fourth. Our table of the 2027 limits by seat sets out the bands.

The MCA figure, and the versions in circulation

Three ranges for MCAs have been reported. The Nation's explainer of 2 October 2026 gives Sh3.48 million to Sh22.09 million, which matches the gazette once the decimals are cut. Eastleigh Voice on 9 August named Ziwani/Kariokor in Nairobi, at Sh3,630,884, among the lowest; Shella in Lamu is lower still in the gazette. The Nation's report of 7 July 2026 gave Sh2.5 million to Sh20 million, but those were the IEBC's draft figures, published for public comment before the final notice.

Half of the 1,450 wards have a ceiling below about Sh5 million. Only 41 are at Sh10 million or more.

How far the final limits moved from the July draft

According to the Nation's 7 July report, the draft proposed Sh4.44 billion for a presidential candidate, Sh17.7 billion for parties, Sh12.3 million to Sh123 million for county seats and Sh17.5 million to Sh123 million for MPs. Both the presidential and the party figures rose by more than a third in the final notice.

What counts against the limit

The notice lists the items the limits cover: venues, publicity material, advertising, campaign personnel, transport, and "any other justifiable expenses including communication, nomination fees, security, accommodation and administrative costs". Regulation 20(3) adds election agents as a separate line. In the party schedule you can see where the IEBC expects money to go: transport is Sh16.13 billion of the parties' Sh24.45 billion. Advertising and media come to Sh2.52 billion, and election agents Sh2.08 billion.

Spending is counted over an expenditure period that, under regulation 4, begins at least six months before the election and ends 14 days after it.

The rules that come with the ceilings

• Every candidate and party opens a separate campaign bank account at a deposit-taking institution in Kenya, and all campaign money is paid in and out through it (regulation 11). Gazette Notice No. 13503 of 20 August 2026 sets Wednesday 10 February 2027 as the date for opening the account and sending its details to the IEBC.
• Names of authorised persons and expenditure committee members are due by 29 May 2027.
• A contribution over Sh20,000 needs a receipt (section 16 of the Act).
• The notice limits any single outside source to 20 per cent of the total in the schedules, about Sh1.22 billion for a presidential candidate. A candidate's own money is exempt (section 12(2)).
• A report on contributions goes to the IEBC every three months (regulation 12), and spending above Sh1 million needs an audited report (regulation 26).
• A party candidate's preliminary nomination expenditure report is due within 21 days of the party primary and by 8 June 2027 at the latest. The final report is due by 22 November 2027.

Exceeding the limit without a reasonable explanation is an offence under section 23 of the Act, punishable by a fine of up to Sh2 million, up to five years in prison or both, and by disqualification from that election.

Why 2027 is the first time

The Act passed in 2013. An amendment, Act No. 1 of 2017, suspended it until after that year's election. For 2022 the IEBC gazetted limits in Gazette Notice No. 8024 of 9 August 2021, but the National Assembly voted to annul them on 28 September 2021 and the IEBC revoked them on 8 October 2021. On 5 May 2022 Justice A.C. Mrima ruled, in Katiba Institute v IEBC, that spending limits need public engagement but no parliamentary approval. The 2022 election ran with no limits at all. More on that history is in Kenya's earlier attempts at spending limits.

Building a budget under the ceiling

Find your seat's figure first. Then budget by the same lines the IEBC used, because the reports will ask what the money bought as well as how much moved. A Sh5,000 entry marked "logistics" will not survive that.

Log each payment the day it is made, against a line, with a receipt and the name of whoever approved it. Reconcile weekly. Put one person in charge of the account and keep shared phones out of it.

For a worked ward example, see what an MCA campaign actually costs, and for the paperwork, a campaign budget that survives an IEBC audit. How the IEBC polices all this is in how a spending limit is enforced.