Why Would The President's Men Need So Much Cash?

From time immemorial, the top leadership in almost all governments and not only in the third world alone has been looking into ways of raising millions of dollars without dipping their fingers into public coffers.

Unfortunately, African administrations have not been creative enough in their fund raising efforts and have usually found themselves fleecing the country's treasury through dubious schemes like Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing..

This goes back to the question as to why does the country's chief executive and his cronies need so much cash (millions of dollars) especially in a country like Kenya where our politicians are among the best paid in the world?

For starters, Kibaki needed lots of money to woo Kenyans prior to the referendum vote where dozens of delegations visited state house and for the first time since he took over, the visitors were given transport money and cash for lunch, prior to departing.

Then there is the opposition to be dealt with. In Kenya's case , Raila Odinga and his team have been a constant thorn in the flesh of Kibaki and are always strategizing on how best to hit out at the government and malign the name of the president.

Such moves warrant a strong counter attack strategies, which costs lots of money as it is common knowledge that those on the defensive have to spend more money than those on the offensive in Kenyan politics.

The ruling elite have to meet at exclusive retreats far from the eyes of the public to thrash out thorny issues which could last several days not to mention those in attendance, usually MPs have to be given a subsistence allowance to cover their 'fuel costs and 'inconvenience' in attending these meetings.

These are just some of the items which may seem small but need quite substantial amounts of cash which make them good motivations to perpetuate multi million scandals like Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing.

Then there is the fact that in many cases, you will find that the president's closest ministers spend too much time on government matters and lose touch with their constituents hence making them unpopular and unlikely to recapture their parliamentary seats. Since the president finds these men and women indispensable, large amounts of cash have to be raised for these people to ensure they popularize themselves fast and get re-elected so as to continue serving the head of state. This is one of the reasons why Kenya should strongly consider switching to the American system where members of the cabinet are not elected members of parliament.

NARC Kenya has said that its' polls budget is Sh 5 billion while the opposition ODM party said they had reached a figure of Sh 2 billion. Where is all this money going to come from?

NARC Kenya being the ruling party is not very hard to guess how they are going to raise the amount, in fact chances are very high that they could already be in possession of the money. For those who love figures, let me humor you by pointing out the fact that Shs 5 Billion is only 10% of the Shs 50 billion that the Anglo Leasing scandal has cost the Kenyan taxpayer.

It is important to note that although on paper, there are strong reasons justifying the raising of the cash, in reality these kind of deals will always tend to spiral out of control as the greedy people running them will seek to ensure that they personally pocket as much money from the proceeds as possible. This usually starts out with the excuse of costs, but when a deal or two has been done, they have been known to maximize on the funds coming in and then ensure that the hands of the politicians involved are "well greased" so that they turn a blind eye as a few people get fabulously wealthy at the expense of the national treasury.

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