Publisher: Korir, api africanpress@getmail.no source.nation.ke
I am not being racist. I am only saying when in Kenya and you get a photo like the one here, you expect the people on it to be the proud black people of Kenya. And yet on the photo we see faces lighter Kenyan faces lined.
We know there are many Indians in Kenya. May be the photo was taken in Westlands where they were voting for the controversial Indian Kamlesh Pattni the Goldenberg taycoon who was thrashed by the peace loving and law abiding Fred Gumo. They were probably voting in large numbers in order to protect their properties in the country. API
Story by JEFF OTIENORevealed: the cash factor in 2007 polls
Major political parties spent about Sh5.6 billion in campaigns for last year’s General Election, a new report has revealed.
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| Kenyans? line up to vote during last year’s General Elections. According to the new report, politicians spent massive amounts to fund campigns at taxpayers’ expense. Photo/ FILE |
According to the report by a local lobby group, some of the money came from the multi-million shilling pyramid scheme rip-off, inflated cost for services to public institutions, donations from parastatals and extortion targeting wealthy businessmen.
The money was Sh800 million more than the cash raised by PNU, ODM, ODM-K and smaller political parties during the 30-day official campaign period, said the report by the Coalition for Accountable Political Campaign Financing lobby group.
Results disputed
The General Election — whose presidential election results were disputed — was the most competitive in Kenya’s history, resulting in violence in which more than 1,200 people were killed and over 350,000 displaced from their homes during nearly two months of post-election chaos.
According to the 24-page report, parties and their candidates raised Sh4.8 billion but spent Sh5.6 billion. Some of the sources of funding remain unknown and it was not clear how the deficit was filled.
Between Sh3 million and Sh7 million may have been used to bribe voters in various constituencies.
“Elite surveys with 98 elected MPs revealed that on average most MPs may have spent between Sh3 million and Sh7 million as hand-outs to voters,” the document reveals.
The lobby group said it computed the figures after desktop research and an elite survey, which captured opinions of 2,000 respondents, including 700 parliamentary aspirants, 98 elected MPs, 900 campaign agents, 202 party officials and 100 public servants. The study was conducted between September and December last year.
However, the figures are estimates and actual amounts could either be higher or lower.
Although the survey was unable to uncover any corruption cases, the lobby group says it came across several allegations of corruption and bribery, which called for further investigations.
According to the lobby group, some politicians were behind the pyramid schemes that collapsed with Sh1.4 billion collected from low and middle-income Kenyans. The group believes that some of the money from the dubious scheme was used in the election campaigns.
“Politicians borrowed money from the schemes and did not return leading to their collapse,” says Dr Charles Otieno, an official of the lobby group.
The report says a group of politicians from a leading political party extorted money from businesses owned by Kenyans of Asian origin. The money was used to fund some of the party’s many activities including bribing voters.
“Many (of the businessmen) had no option but to pay money fearing the consequences for failure to do as ordered,” said Dr Otieno.
The official called for investigations into allegations that a parastatal over-billed its customers to the tune of Sh500 million and donated the extra money to a political party.
“A Government ministry may have used Sh980 million of public funds to fund a national youth campaign lobby group across the country. The money was allegedly disbursed through various financial institutions, saccos and NGOs,” Dr Otieno said in Nairobi Wednesday.
According to the report one company allegedly received a Sh10 million government contract, which was later inflated to Sh150 million. The company later donated Sh100 million to one of the political parties. The lobby group alleged that a political party gave a Sh20 million bribe to the management of an opinion poll company to manipulate opinion polls during the campaign period. And a mobile phone firm donated 250 toll-free lines to a party’s coordinators during the campaigns.
The report says parties organised fundraising activities which were attended by personalities from the corporate world, including some that had business with the Government in areas such as construction, information technology, stock exchange and telecommunication.
Personalities from parastatals attended some of the fund-raisers.
Small parties
Small parties did not escape criticism either. According to the report, some politicians formed “briefcase” parties to make money from desperate aspirants who planned to vie for parliamentary or civic seats. “The small parties made a total of Sh340 million. The money was never used for election purposes since the parties did not support their candidates,” the report says.
According to the document, PNU spent Sh2.1 billion on various activities aimed at winning voters’ support. One of the highest expenditures was on the Vijana na Kibaki campaign lobby group on which the party spent Sh300 million. Party agents at various polling stations got Sh390 million, while campaign coordinators took home Sh230 million.
ODM spent Sh1.2 billion on the campaigns — Sh900 million less than PNU. The highest expenditure was on travel and logistics, which cost the party Sh200 million. Another Sh57 million was spent on national campaign events.
ODM Kenya was third on party expenditure on various election-related activities. But it only spent Sh157 million. Travel and logistics cost the party Sh28 million, while national campaign events, namely the manifesto and Nairobi rallies took Sh22 million.
On media and publicity, PNU topped the list, having spent Sh189 million, followed by ODM (Sh152 million) and ODM-K (Sh6 million).
The document says the parties had almost similar sources of funding mainly party levies, nomination fees and fund-raising dinners. However, not all dinners were monitored. Some candidates did not pass on the money they got from dinners to their parties,” said Dr Otieno.
The study monitored 100 fundraising dinners by ODM, 114 by PNU and affiliated parties and 34 by ODM-K. PNU and affiliate parties raised the highest amount from the dinners, followed by ODM and ODM-K in that order.
“The main political parties received additional income from individual and foreign sources. It is not clear whether the foreign funding came from Kenyans or from non-Kenyans,” the report said.
ODM topped the list of mobilisation of funds from abroad, collecting Sh500 million, followed by PNU Sh450 million and ODM-K Sh15 million.
Interestingly, 40 per cent of parliamentary candidates reported that funding for their campaigns was from loans, donations from family and friends, pyramid schemes, savings and sale of personal assets.
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African Press International - api
Kamlesh Mansukhlal Damji Pattni (born 1962) is a businessman implicated in the Goldenberg scandal. Since 1990 he was the chairman of Goldenberg International Ltd. Kamlesh Pattni was born in Mombasa - (being born in Mombasa does not necessarily make him Kenyan). He later moved to Nairobi, where he allegedly used his company to steal billions of shillings, in league with prominent politicians and government officials in the Goldenberg scandal. Many other people were also undoubtedly involved. The effects of Goldenberg were devastating to Kenya’s economy in the late 1990s. He has been jailed on multiple occasions but has always managed to get free.
Deya met the Queen at an official Royal engagement in Catford, London, during her Golden Jubilee year (pictured).
