A disturbing trend is emerging where people vying for political office in the forthcoming general elections slated for March 2013 in Kenya are calling on their supporters and society at large to contribute to their campaign funding.
From leading presidential hopefuls, to gubernatorial and senatorial contenders, to women’s representatives and members of parliament expensive advertisements are splashed in the leading daily newspapers inviting people to dinners, goat eating sessions, strategy meetings etc etc. I am sure a lot of resources are also spent on invitation cards, SMS messages, email invitations, booking of hotels and other venues and whose sole aim is to raise funds for political campaigns. Figures of Kshs. 1,000,000.00 per plate have been whispered to me in the past as what some people are expected to pay for dinner in an upmarket hotel while for the not so well off (?) Kshs. 10,000.00 to Kshs. 20,000.00 per plate is expected of them.
I have been recently invited for one of these ‘meetings’ which I refused to attend and the person inviting me was promising me all kinds of favors when they are elected to their office of choice, including getting jobs for my daughters!!! Puhleeeze…………………………….I am quite capable of getting jobs for my daughters when they are done with their education thank you!!
I want to put it to these political hopefuls that standing for a political office is like participating in a lottery, you either win or your lose and there is no joy or glory in being runners-up. This means that since you will be the eventual winner, that is if you do convince the electorate that you are the best candidate, the victory is to you and you alone.
This business of playing the lottery with other people’s money is not only unfair but a downright con game if the only promise that you can make to them is that you will get their children jobs and access to the good things in life once elected yet your intention is to renege on every single promise you have made the minute you are elected to that high office. It is also not improbable that you are planning to raise the campaign funds with a dishonest motive because your intention is to carry out an unconvincing campaign using as little of the funds raised as possible with the intention of shoring up a battered bank account with the majority of the funds once you ‘lose’ because it is a known fact in Kenya that there is no transparency and accountability in how the campaign funds are raised and utilized.
So are these fund raising antics just mere distractions to fool the gullible people willing to fund your political campaign that you shall ‘look’ after them when you are in power? Or is it just the usual business as usual thing to get money from people by false pretenses even by those who can comfortably fund their own campaigns from their own bank accounts and not even feel as if anything has happened to their bank balances.
As the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted and to assume that just because you have wagered your shillings on someone who has promised you a ‘plum’ posting after he/she is elected or that they will honor that promise under the new constitutional dispensation which insists on certain minimum benchmarks for constitutional office holders one of which is not having donated to someone’s political kitty or/and having signed MOU’s with them is to wishful think in the extreme
Be warned, the season of political chicanery, tomfoolery and downright con games is here lest you get caught being called to 'buy' your way into some obtuse dream of being a somebody when you favorite candidate is in power while they may command no support even from their own family members.
As for me, I don’t owe anybody any political favors and neither am I owed any by anybody. I may be a fool but leave this fool alone as you go about your political fund raising!!
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