Who Financed The Narc Campaign In 2002?

The question of how a campaign is financed must now take centre stage in every future political contest in the land. It is very important.

In Kenya’s first ever elections in 1963, KADU (the guys who supported majimboism) were financed by the powerful local white settler community who viewed the guys at Kanu as radicals who would kick them out of the country as soon as they came into power.

Kanu’s financing for those elections was a mystery. It was claimed that Julius Nyerere’s TANU (Tanganyika African National Union) supplied the cash. Close observers however viewed this as a clever political gimmick by Tom Mboya. It was unlikely that the cash-strapped TANU (predecessor of the current CCM Chama Cha Mapinduzi) in Tanzania would have supplied the kind of funds that Kanu used in those elections. It is widely believed that a lot of the money came from Tom Mboya’s friends, the Americans. Mboya’s enemies liked to say that it was CIA money. If this was true it was not the last time that contestants in Kenyan elections have received campaign funds from foreign sources. (but that is a story for another day).

Which leads us to the critical question of where campaign funds for the 2002 elections came from. It is said that a lot of the Kanu funding came from the usual sources - government tenders given out at highly exaggerated prices. The Kenyatta family is also said to have heavily sponsored the Presidential bid of their family member, Uhuru.

Where the Narc funding came from is a little more difficult to fathom. However, it is one mystery that is slowly beginning to unfold. We now know that various shrewd businessmen (most of them Asians) who could see the direction in which the wind was blowing supplied lots of cash. And that was where the roots of corruption in Narc were planted because these were favors that would have to be returned in the form of even more lucrative government contracts.

Two other names kept on cropping up when I tried to do some research on this subject in late November 2002, (just before the elections). The names were George Saitoti and Raphael Tuju. Proving yet again the truism in politics that you can buy yourself anything, including a place in the cabinet.

Many Kenyans must have been surprised when Tuju - a first time MP -- ended up in Kibaki’s cabinet. But not close observers who knew how Narc’s bread was buttered.


Raphael Tuju: Helped financed Narc campaign?

Raphael Tuju used his media skills and experience to emerge with one of the first NGO’s in East Africa to embark on the task of sensitizing people about the HIVAids pandemic. He was probably one of the first people to discover the massive funds that were being poured into fighting Aids by numerous organizations around the globe. That was how the man made his money.

Prof George Saitoti's story is different.

It is said that Saitoti used to drive around in a tired old VW (Volkswagon) in his days as a mathematics lecturer. Yet after a short stint in government he suddenly became a very wealthy man. Wealthy enough to make a significant cash contribution to the Narc campaign in 2002. So how did he make his money? Read between the lines and draw your own conclusion.

So if it is indeed true that Saitoti made money from Goldenberg then the sad truth is that the 2002 Narc campaign was partly financed by Goldenberg. Not to mention the other funds flowing in from businessmen who had been closley involved in corrupt deals with the previous Kanu government.

In a way this would explain all the delaying tactics and circus that continues to be played out concerning the Goldenberg mega-scandal. In fact it took the current Anglo leasing crisis to bring Goldenberg back into the limelight and many people believe that it is being used to divert attention away from Anglo Leasing.

In the coming elections the media, including this blog must ask and carefully investigate the true source of funding for various political parties and interests. This is always a very important question that needs an honest answer before one casts their vote for anybody.

Kenyan voters, you have been warned.