In an interview with Spice FM earlier this year, Lugari MP Ayub Savula, who is now running mate for Kakamega gubernatorial aspirant Fernandes Barasa, revealed that he spent a lot on handouts before winning both the 2013 and 2017 general elections.
The MP said he spent an estimated Sh45 million in the 2017 general election alone, in addition to other expenses incurred in campaign logistics.
“Forget about logistics. Logistics is a car and gasoline. The main cash goes to bribes, and that’s a fact,” he said.
The outgoing lawmaker revealed that he used to dish out not less than Sh400,000 in a single meeting with voters.
“If you go to a rally, you must have an average of Sh400,000 to Sh500,000, depending on the rally you get,” he revealed.
He said that 10 people would line up for each to receive Sh100 from a single Sh1000 note.
The MP said that he knows that this is against the law, but it is very necessary for one to win an election.
“You’ll not be seen dishing out the money because it is against the law. What you do is you sit in your car and watch. You give your money to your people, your people queue,” he continued.
In addition to the handouts dished out to the common mwananchi, the legislator further revealed that he used to give influential people in society between Sh1000 and Sh5000.
“If you are going to a certain ward to campaign, you sit in a committee, you give committee members allowances, maybe Sh2000 each depending on somebody’s status in the society. Somebody like a former regional police officer you can’t give him Sh2000, you give him Sh5000,” he said.
Sam Oduor is the founder and one of the editors at WKT. With a strong background in Communication and Journalism, Sam is an experienced digital media expert currently building a team of young professionals dedicated to telling the story of our community in a unique, authentic way.
