Nakuru: Kihika campaign coffers run dry

• Jun 21, 2022

Nakuru: Kihika campaign coffers run dry

By John Kamau, Editor, thingira.org (Email:thingiragema@gmail.com)

Correspondent

Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika is in shock after accounts of his financiers in the gubernatorial campaigns were suddenly frozen.

In her stint as county speaker for five years, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission records indicated she earned at most Sh70m.

However, she fueled her 2017 senatorial campaigns on a Sh500 million budget, which remained a mystery.

It emerged later that Sam Mburu, a close ally of William Ruto was financing the campaigns.

Mburu, a clearing and forwarding mogul, made riches by winning government tenders, at inflated prices, through the Deputy President.

His companies were also involved in procurement of contraband goods that ‘ate’ into the economy until the government launched a crackdown.

With the ban on the importation of fake and contraband goods, Mburu, who has since married Susan, suffered a serious setback.

The senator, left with a financial flat tyre, found another source of funding from criminal gangs that were extorting members of the public especially in the Nakuru’s CBD.

In 2016, then Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Nkaissery listed Confirm gang among 89 illegal organisations used by politicians to wreak havoc and instill fear on opponents.

Susan was working with two gangs - Confirm and another codenamed Team 100.

 Confirm gang, however, became widely known because unlike Team 100 whose activities were in the rural areas, the former was concentrated in the Nakuru CBD and suburbs.

Confirm gang also ventured into mobile money services. They would send fake M-PESA messages to unsuspecting Kenyans indicating they have sent money wrongly and asking for refunds.

Gullible Kenyans would “reverse” the transactions only to realise they have been robbed.

 Telco firms alerted their members of the fraud and the Confirm gang scheme fell flat.

 With their prey dwindling, the gang morphed into muggers, bunglers and highway robbers.

Things fell apart last year when Susan tried to re-organise them into one concrete gang for the 2022 campaigns.

 The sharing of the booty became the bone-of contention as Susan wanted the lion’s share which the group objected to.

The group split into two: Wakamati and Wazito wa TZ AKA Watanzania.

After the split, Wakamati now claims dominance in Kivumbini whereas Wazito wa TZ/ Watanzania pitched their tents in Rhonda and Bondeni areas.

The senator, in a fit, confronted County Commissioner Erastus Mbui who chaperoned a security campaign to root out the misfits.

With the gang failing to oil her campaigns, Susan sought funds from NARAL Pro- Choice America, a US organisation with over two million members of which Susan is a subscriber and which champions abortion as a way of controlling the birthrate.

NARAL Pro-Choice is the same organisation that funded the Pro- Abortion motion that Susan sponsored in the national chamber in 2020.

To disguise the source of the funding, the senator organised a fundraiser on 12th May at Sarova Panafric Hotel, Nairobi.

The fundraiser was given a wide berth by majority legislators and businesspeople but, surprisingly, Sh20 million was raised.

From the money, the senator bankrolled and bailed out convicts of Confirm gang who have resumed business, terrorising business people especially M-Pesa attendants.

Disagreements on how to share the loot has seen the factions clash in broad daylight, killing each other’s members.

Those who got entangled in the melee have paid with their lives.

Property has been vandalised and business premises closed in affected areas and police have recently been working hard to restore law and order in Nakuru.

Meanwhile, Susan is still campaigning and asking Nakuru voters to elect her as Governor of Nakuru saying she is a God-fearing person.