The National Super Alliance (NASA) campaign team has resolved to conduct a ‘harambee’ to fund the presidential campaigns of Raila Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka in the forthcoming fresh polls, following the nullification of the August presidential election by the Supreme Court.
The team introduced a pay bill number 99144 and a Cooperative Bank of Kenya account to enable their supporters send their contributions towards the campaign expenses. In addition, it has emerged that all elected leaders affiliated to the SANA coalition will each sacrifice their salaries to support the campaigns. If all MPs, Senators and governors affiliated to the coalition adhere to the agreement, they will raise more than Ksh 100 million.
The previous campaigns were so intensive that they could have exhausted the budgeted amount for the campaigns, with concerned parties having largely not been prepared for fresh elections.
In the previous campaign period that culminated to the nullified August 8 polls, Raila campaigns are said to have been sponsored by shy billionaire Jimi Wanjigi, who is credited with brokering NASA’s leadership pact, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho – whose family owns one of Kenya’s largest clearing agencies – Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero and former Kenya Ports boss Brown Ondego.
On the other hand, President Kenyatta’s campaigns were sponsored to a tune of Ksh 1 billion which was collected in less than two hours in an exclusive dinner.
The lobby group that helped President Kenyatta raise the amount included business guru John Simba (chairman), Titus Ibui (secretary), SportPesa architect Paul Ndung’u (treasurer), Equity Bank founder Peter Munga (member), CMC director Joel Kibe (member), business mogul Peter Muthoka (member) and Pius Ngugi (member), according to the Standard.
Earlier, Raila chief campaigner Musalia Mudavadi indicated that they would avoid as much as possible contributions from tycoons who would arm-twist them later to return the favour for personal interests.
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“Our biggest financiers are the rank and file members of the coalition who can contribute as little as Sh1,000 towards the campaign. We want to ensure that our campaigns are people driven,” said Mudavadi.
Currently, there is no limit to which candidates can receive donations for campaigns from prospective sponsors. The window to raise unlimited funds was opened in December when the National Assembly suspended the law capping spending limits during campaigns in a spirited drive pushed by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee Chairman Samuel Chepkonga.
