Opposition leader Raila Odinga has prepared a sturdy financial war chest for what may his last attempt at the Presidency next year.
Historically Raila has been considered a stingy politician but he now appears to have started serious personal spending.
He has been facilitating his co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang'ula to travel across the country as well as providing the bulk of the money needed to organise Cord activities.
He pays from his pocket for the offices and staff at Capitol Hill, owned by the late Harban Singh, which are now being used as the Cord joint secretariat. Recently, he ordered for a review of the working terms of his secretariat who got salary increments and enhanced allowances. The Staff at Orange House are paid from the ODM coffers
The exact amounts released by Raila remain confidential but sources says the former Prime Minister has been willing to fund budgets with ease unlike before.
"Sometimes he delivers the cash using other people and it could be in millions," said an aide to the Cord leader.
Raila has put together an efficient campaign team to handle party finances as well as his political diary.
The recent appointment of former Special Projects PS Andrew Mondoh as Chief of Staff at the Cord secretariat has streamlined operations and increased impetus.
With 14 months left to the 2017 general election, Raila has been making high profile foreign trips and staging costly political rallies in Western Kenya, Mombasa, Nairobi, Meru, Nyanza and recently Garissa.
In Nairobi alone Raila has bankrolled multiple rallies attended by thousands of supporters in the scramble for the strategic city vote.
"You have seen for yourselves. It will no longer be business as usual in Cord. Kama ni pesa, tutatumia pia, kwani wao ni nani? (if it is money, we will also spend, otherwise who are they (Jubilee)?," a senior official at the Cord secretariat told the Star.
"We will prove wrong our critics who said we had run out of steam," said the official.
"Expect more in the coming days, we have taken time to plan, get resources and now it is spending time," said the official who is acquainted with Cord's internal operations.
During the Madaraka Day rally in Uhuru Park, Raila reportedly spent Sh2 Million on logistics alone.
Cord hired a clear and powerful public address system and provided entertainment unit from musicians Emma Jalamo and Lady Mourine.
Buses were also hired to ferry supporters from as far as Machakos, Ngong, Kajiado and take them back after close of business. Historically Raila and cord have not been known to facilitate crowds.
Last Saturday Raila stormed Garissa Township where there was heavy mobilisation with thousands of Cord supporters filling the stadium
Raila’s strategy for 2017 will be different to 2013 because then he campaigned as the Prime Minister and therefore in government, says political analyst Adams Oloo.
“This time round he is in the opposition and is expected to use a different approach. Each election has different and unique characteristics,” Oloo said.
In the last year Raila has been to the UK, Brazil, China, South Africa, France, Korea, Israel, Tanzania and Mozambigue and conducted TV interviews with CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera.
Last year, Raila launched The Kenyan Weekly paper to provide a new platform to articulate concerns without the usual newsroom gate-keeping. He has also set up the website www.rao.co.ke and is employing several bloggers.
He has bought two new choppers, one last November and a second in February 2016. He has been criss crossing Kenya in a Eurocopter B4 Bell that cost an estimated $2 million ( Sh200 million).
Raila also wants sitting governors to be in charge of his grassroots campaigns and to assist with his expenses. In exchange the govenors want direct nomination tickets next year arguing that party primaries would distract them from focusing on Raila’s campaigns.
Three governors from Luo Nyanza - Cornel Rasanga (Siaya), Jack Ranguma (Kisumu) and Cyprian Awiti (Homa Bay) - have said they should not undergo primaries.
“We have showed ODM unwavering support ever since we were elected. Going for nominations means the party can give tickets to our rivals which could be a blow to us,” Rasanga said.
In 2013, Jubilee reportedly spent about Sh10 billion on campaigns while Cord ran a budget of Sh13 billion.
A study by Coalition for Accountable Political Financing estimated that in 2007, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga between them spent Sh7 billion on their presidential campaigns.
Presidential candidates need to finance merchandise, operations, events, helicopters, branded vehicles, media campaigns, opinion polls, and much else.
However proposed campaign financing regulations by the IEBC, which is before Parliament, wants to limit the expenditure of each presidential candidate in 2017.
The IEBC proposes to peg campaign spending to the number of voters in an electoral area, proposing it should not exceed Sh250 per registered voter. Assuming 18 million registered voters, that would give each candidate a budget of around sh4.5 billion.
Raila can afford to pay
It is doubtful that any candidate could pay all the costs of a presidential election but Raila is wealthy enough to start the ball rolling. The Odinga family's Kisumu molasses plant may have closed down but Spectre is still importing LPG and manufacturing cylinders. Spectre also wants to build a Sh300 million LPG depot in Embakasi. The annual LPG market in Kenya is worth about US$1.6 billion so even a small share is valuable. Raila's stake in Pan Africa Petroleum may however be far more valuable. Working with the giant Al Bakri group in Saudi Arabia, Pan African has profitably supplied petroleum to the Kenyan market since being set up in 2005. On his Linked In page, Raila's son Junior lists himself as an 'owner' of Pan African Petroleum and a 'sales assistant' for Bakri International Energy since 2007. Pan African Petroleum has also made big inroads into the West African market. It operates an offshore exploration licence in Nigeria jointly with Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man. In November 2015 Raila and Dangote both attended the swearing in of John Magufuli as President of Tanzania, which has just started selling its massive gas reserves. Pan African Petroleum is also operating in Angola.