Why we must campaign against voter bribery ahead of 2027 polls

Ballot boxes at a polling station. [File, Standard]

The season for voter bribery is here. Every General Election in Kenya is a time for many voters to target “politicians’ money.” And, it comes in various forms, including contributions to programmes, hardware projects and charities. The most visible form of corruption is the culture of handouts.

Handouts have been dished out in marketplaces, behind tents, in cars, on playing fields, or through group leaders for generations. I do not recall an election where the agents of political aspirants did not line up desperate voters for handouts. I vividly remember church leaders in the 1980s warning us never to accept handouts from politicians, as it was seen as a form of corruption. We were also told that if we do not stop accepting handouts and other forms of bribery during campaigns, we will never see much development. The argument was that anyone who invests in campaigns will want to recover their money as soon as the campaigns are over. We were taken through a financial breakdown of how much each aspirant would need to distribute to stand a chance of winning.