How Sakaja splashed Sh15million on agents in just concluded elections
Nairobi governor-elect Johnson Sakaja has revealed that he spent Sh15 million to pay poll agents in the just concluded general election.
In an interview with a local TV station last night, Sakaja disclosed that he had a team of 3,643 agents who were stationed across all polling stations in the city to guard his votes.
However, Sakaja revealed he could only manage to pay the agents for three days since the exercise took longer than expected.
“We need to have an electronic transmission for our polls. I have just finished sorting out my agents. It cost me Sh15 million. I had 3,643 agents for three days of work,” Sakaja said.
Additionally, Sakaja had deployed a total of 396 polling centre managers and mobilisers, who pushed his budget even higher.
The outgoing Senator lamented the complexity of the Kenyan electoral process saying it makes the exercise unnecessarily expensive for Kenyans seeking elective office.
“For the extra days that were consumed by the vote tallying process, the outgoing Nairobi Senator said, friends volunteered and offered their services free of charge,” Sakaja said.
Sakaja, who ran on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket, garnered 699,392 votes to clinch the governor’s seat, while his main challenger Polycarp Igathe of the Jubilee party finished second with 573,516 votes.
The governor-elect is expected to get sworn in tomorrow while the other 45 governors elect will be taking the oath of office.
This will be in line with the provisions of the Assumption of the Office of Governor Act 2012.
The Act provides that governors-elect must be sworn in on the first Thursday after the 10th day of the declaration of the final results by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
The governors-elect shall take an oath of office in a public ceremony presided over by a High Court Judge.
In the same breadth, the Judiciary has appointed 47 Judges to take charge of the ceremonies.
