Breakdown Of How Ksh524 Million Was Spent On Raila's AUC Campaigns
According to the committee’s report, the Ksh 523.85 million was allocated to the State Department for Defence, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs and was used for what was categorized as international candidatures activity.
Viral Tea Ke Writer 
The government was revealed to have spent Ksh523.85 million on Raila Odinga’s unsuccessful bid for the African Union Commission (AUC) chairperson seat, according to the Defense, Intelligence, and Foreign Relations Committee.
During a committee session on Monday, March 10, Chairman Nelson Koech revealed that the funds were approved by the National Treasury under Article 223 of the Constitution. This provision permits emergency expenditures without prior parliamentary approval, provided they are ratified within two months.
Koech presented these findings to the National Assembly’s Liaison Committee, led by Deputy Speaker Gladys Shollei, as part of the review of Supplementary Budget II for the 2024/25 financial year.
According to the committee’s report, the Ksh 523.85 million was allocated to the State Department for Defence, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs and was used for what was categorized as international candidatures activity.
The expenditure breakdown includes the hiring of chartered aircraft, with a significant portion of the funds covering private air travel costs for Raila and his campaign team as they visited various African nations to lobby heads of state and government officials.
Hotel accommodation was another major expense, with funds used to cover lodging for Raila, his nine-member campaign secretariat, and accompanying delegations. Additionally, airport transfers were funded to facilitate smooth ground transportation across multiple countries.
A portion of the budget was also allocated to publicity and awareness efforts, which included promotional materials, media engagements, and campaign events.
The findings were revealed after Raila, on Monday, February 24, denounced claims that the government spent Ksh13 billion of taxpayers' money to finance his AUC chair campaigns across Africa.
At State House, Mombasa, he dismissed claims, notably made first by Juja Member of Parliament George Koimburi, that the billions were used to persuade African leaders to support him for the African Union Commission chairmanship, a race he ended up losing to Djibouti's Mahamoud Youssouf after six rounds.
"I am grateful to President Ruto for standing by me. He never asked me to run. I announced myself that I was going to run for the AUC Chair seat, and Ruto only came after I had made that announcement to support my candidature, and he did support my candidature not just by words but by deeds," he revealed.
"He put up the machinery to help the campaign for me. I have seen that somebody is talking about Ksh 13 billion that was spent on the campaign. I don’t know which world these guys live in and whether they know what a billion means. A billion shillings to do what?"
According to Raila, the government spent money on whatever it felt was necessary, without spending lavishly.
“The money that was spent was money that was necessary. It was used just to hire transport to travel around, and we were not living luxuriously. We were eating whatever was given to us wherever we went to, and many other African countries were very generous; they provided us with accomodation and so on,” added Raila.
