allAfrica.com: Kenya: Storm Over Sh3.5 Billion Poll Campaign Spending (Page 1 of 2)

Reports that the three major political parties spent a whopping Sh3.5 billion in election campaigns last year has raised a storm. Small parties spent Sh340 million.

The report, Campaign, Finance and Corruption released on Wednesday, gives details how each party raised its war chest and used the funds. It lists the consolidated total for campaign expenditure for all political parties, big and small, as Sh5.6 billion. PNU, under whose banner President Kibaki contested, tops the list. It spent a Sh2.1 billion in the campaigns.

ODM, whose presidential candidate, Mr Raila Odinga, is now the Prime Minister, spent Sh1.2 billion. ODM-Kenya, whose presidential candidate is now the Vice-President, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, spent Sh157 million.

Interestingly, the figures reflect the pecking order of the three top men in the country.

But the figures were immediately disputed by ODM Publicity Secretary, Mr Salim Lone, who said the actual figure, though not available, was far lower.

"ODM spent far less than that. We are tabulating the actual figures and once we are through, we will release the results," said Lone.

Housing Minister, Mr Soita Shitanda, also cast doubt on the figures, saying smaller political parties could not afford the millions said to have been spent in the campaigns.

"Most of us actually depended on the goodwill of the electorate to finance our campaigns," he said.

Kaddu Chairman, Mr Cyrus Jirongo, who is also the Lugari MP, also cast doubt on the report, saying smaller parties had no substantial cash for the campaigns.

He said Kaddu levied a small fee to facilitate campaigns and there was no substantive campaign kitty as such.

PNU, the report says, spent Sh36 million in fundraising, Sh189 million in mass media and publicity, Sh160 million on campaign material, Sh190 million on constituency support and Sh9 million on travel and logistics.

Another Sh190 million was spent on Kibaki Tena rallies, Sh9 million on media facilitation (journalists), Sh150 million on the presidential campaign team, Sh300 million on Vijana Na Kibaki, Sh120 million on party nominations, Sh230 million on coordinators and Sh390 million on party agents at various polling stations.

PNU also spent Sh39 million on ICT facilitation, Sh19 million on opinion polls and Sh10 million on propaganda.

The ODM campaign expenditure was no less spectacular, with the breakdown indicating that Sh30 million was spent on fundraising, Sh152 million on mass media, Sh39 million on campaign materials, Sh27 million on constituency support and Sh200 million on travel and logistics (helicopters and vehicles).

A further Sh57 million was spent on national campaign events, Sh147 million on the Pentagon Team, Sh54 million on presidential nominations, Sh156 million on party nomination and Sh50 million on campaign coordinators.

Another Sh120 million was spent on party agents, Sh89 million on rallies, Sh70 million on security and rally personnel, Sh6 million on opinion polls and Sh3 million on propaganda.

For ODM-Kenya, the highest amount in the Kalonzo campaign breakdown, was Sh28 million on travel and logistics, while the lowest was Sh6 million on mass media and publicity.

Political parties also spent Sh813 million on nominations, says the report.

The report has been prepared by the Governance and Publicity Policy Unit, an NGO headed by Dr Charles Otieno.

The information on parties' expenditure was sought from financial documents, media coverage, interviews with politicians, party officials, agents and former campaign managers. Monitoring was through a survey of opinions of 2000 respondents - 700 parliamentary aspirants, 98 MPs, 900 campaign agents, 202 political party officials and 100 non-party functionaries. The researchers also sought the views of 20,569 voters 18 years old and above.

ODM raised Sh300 million, small political parties Sh200 million, Kenda Sh120 million, PNU coalition Sh78 million, ODM-Kenya Sh58 million, PNU direct nomination applicants Sh30 million, Kaddu Sh20 million and Narc Sh7 million from nomination fees and levies.

Political parties also raised substantial amounts of money through fundraising. PNU collected Sh646 million, with Central topping the list with Sh270 million. Nairobi raised Sh260 million, Nyanza Sh6 million, Coast Sh27 million, Eastern Sh23 million, Rift Valley Sh42 million and Western Sh18 million. ODM raised Sh388 million, with Rift Valley topping the list with Sh136 million, followed by Nyanza with Sh85 million, Nairobi Sh84 million, Central 0, Coast Sh45 million, Eastern Sh2 million, North Eastern (nil) and Western Sh36 million.

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