We must urgently rethink our poll campaign financing ways

In the aftermath of the General Election, the dominant narrative has been that of winners and losers—spoken of in terms of numbers, names and faces—yet there is no story, I believe that has really captured the extent of the human loss to those who offer themselves for leadership.

The cost of politics in Kenya is a time bomb whose human cost is an unmitigated disaster.

A study by Prof Karuti Kanyinga and Tom Mboya on behalf of South Consulting Africa Limited, “The cost of politics in Kenya”, gives a sobering scenario. It established that, in the 2017 General Election, a senatorial candidate spent as much as Sh49 million, woman representative (Woman Rep) Sh32.2 million, Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Sh21.2 million and member of the county assembly (MCA) Sh4.2 million to win the election. Those who lost the election spent Sh20.3 million, Sh13.4 million, Sh14.9 million and Sh2.1 million each, respectively.

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The study established that the Senate seat is the most expensive of all to contest for, costing a candidate an average of Sh35.5 million in 2017. Contestants for the Woman Rep seat followed with an average expenditure of Sh22.8 million. MNAs averaged Sh18.2 million while the MCA seat was the least expensive at Sh3.1 million.

Personal savings

These costs are predominantly raised from an individual’s personal savings or with the support of friends or family. Less than 20 per cent of survey respondents received financial support directly from their political party.

The survey found that, overall, the more a candidate spends, the greater their chance of electoral victory. The victorious Woman Rep candidates spent almost three times as much as those who were unsuccessful. Those who won the Senate seat spent more than double what those who lost did.

In the race for National Assembly seats, successful candidates spent 50 per cent more than those who did not win.

All this money does not only go to legitimate expenses such as advertising, transport and staff salaries. Much of it goes towards enticing voters.

The report also showed that winning does not mark the end of the leaders’ woes but opens a chapter of endless spending. On average, elected MNAs spend as much as Sh780,000 a month—primarily on development projects for their constituents and donations to individuals and local interest groups.

More than their salary

This is more than their basic monthly salary before allowances and benefits.  A similar trend of monthly expenditure matching or being greater than basic salary income was reported across all four positions studied.

Yet, while this research has documented well the financial cost of our extremely expensive campaigns, it has not gone anywhere near capturing the greater loss—psychological, physiological or otherwise—of Kenyans who dare run for office.

While it’s a patriotic duty not just to vote but also to offer oneself for leadership, the way election campaigns are conducted in the country makes politics a life-threatening affair. It is life-wrecking, destabilising and too much of a burden to those seeking leadership positions.

Broken hearts, financial ruin and social stigma that visit the aspirants for elective positions should make all of us pause and think whether this is how we ought to run our democracy. In the meantime, shouldn’t we really be thinking of a massive post-election trauma management programme—for the losers and winners alike?

We need to change our politics. Even as we endeavour to maintain our constitutional democracy, we need to rethink the manner in which we go about it. The investment is too huge, especially for the youth, people with disabilities and some women seeking leadership positions to muster. Not surprisingly, even those seeking party nomination must spend heavily.

Remember, the party primaries were so costly that some aspirants are yet to recover from the trauma. I know of many cases of admission to hospital following party primaries. People sold their property, took out bank loans, borrowed from friends and relatives and also became regular customers to Shylocks and fortune tellers, where they got all manner of ‘prayers for cash’ in all manner of places—to no avail.

The heavy commercialisation of our campaigns comes at a great cost—not just to individuals who have to pay out these monies but the general citizenry, who lose out on the development agenda as cash becomes the be-all and end-all of the electoral process.

We must change this culture of handouts if we are to rescue our democracy from imminent collapse.

Mr Bwire is the director of media, training and development at the Media Council of Kenya (MCK). [email protected].