24 April 2008
Nairobi — 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.
ODM-Kenya's highest contribution of Sh28 million came from Nairobi and the lowest Sh1 million from Western Province. The party collected Sh50 million from fundraising and resource mobilization, while PNU got Sh611 million.
ODM Pentagon fundraising, group initiative and resource mobilisation raised from individuals Sh200 million, companies Sh500 million, foreign contribution Sh500 million and contributions in kind Sh60 million.
The report says parliamentary candidates largely funded their campaigns and political parties did not play a major role in raising any money for them.
The 40 per cent of parliamentary candidates sourced their money from loans, personal resources, pyramid schemes, friends, family members, donations, saccos, banks sale of personal assets including houses, land and personal savings.
The 210 Parliamentary candidates used Sh 1.4 billion to finance their campaigns.
The break down of the parliamentary candidates' war chest was as follows, Sh 630 million from Personal Funds (Savings and sale of personal assets), 420 million from Loans ( Pyramid schemes, Insurance companies, banks and Saccos) and Sh 420 million from donations and contributions from friends.
The consolidated tracked party income for PNU (sources unknown) was Sh 611 million, from dinners (sources known) Sh 646 million, consolidated parliamentary and civic aspirants application fees Sh 108 million and consolidated misuse of State and public resources for campaigns was Sh 445 million.
From consolidated tracked income (source unknown) ODM spent sh 1.3 nillion, consolidated tracked fundraising dinner (source known) Sh 388 million.
ODM-Kenya had Sh 50 million from consolidated tracked party income (unknown source) consolidated fund raising Sh 65 million and consolidated parliamentary and civic aspirants application fees was Sh 58 million.
A group of politicians were behind shady pyramid schemes that collapsed, leading to a loss amounting to Sh 1.4 billion collected from poor Kenyans.
According to the report, released to media houses yesterday, individuals may have stolen Sh 650 million from PNU campaign funds.
Five cabinet ministers in the Grand Coalition spent millions to bribe voters so as to be re-elected in the last General Election, it adds.
The report says that according to the campaign income tracking data, PNU may have mobilized over Sh 1.3 billion from its fundraising activities. However, only Sh 630 million was declared by a few responsible individuals.
The report says that the 2007 General Election was the most competitive in the country's history, recording one of the highest voter turn out.
The report says that Sh 500 million was borrowed from banks, Sh 800 million came from party nominations and Sh 700 million was raised through individual candidates' assets.
It says KBC failed to fulfill the minimum legal obligation required of it as a public service broadcaster as set out in Kenya Broadcasting Corporation Act.
The analysis indicates both English and Kiswahili KBC coverage were highly biased and granted 76 % coverage to PNU, 13% to ODM, 5% to ODM-Kenya and 6% to a raft of parties.
KBC TV followed the same pattern in which PNU received 71% of its election coverage, ODM 11% and ODM-K 5%. The report said KBC failed to fulfill legal obligation over fair and balanced coverage.
A team of 77 officials monitored the distribution of money in 77 selected constituencies.
A staggering Sh 630 million was spent by parliamentary candidates in vote buying and bribes
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