Kenyan entrepreneurs were last week counting the millions of shillings they made supplying politicians with materials and services in what is believed to have been the most expensive election campaigns in the country’s history.
Traders interviewed by the Business Daily said their revenues more than doubled in the first two months of the year, mainly driven by campaign merchandise sales and services.
Topping the list of beneficiaries were makers of the millions of posters that dotted nearly every wall throughout the country. Makers of branded T-shirts, caps, and souvenirs such as branded pens and key-holders also tapped into the campaign millions, growing their earnings by large margins.
People with buildings to let, owners of public address systems, road show trucks and off-road vehicles for hire were not left behind in the two-month gravy train that is estimated to have given Kenya its latest crop of young millionaires.
Last week, as the electoral dust settled with declaration of Uhuru Kenyatta as President-elect, some of the entrepreneurs held on to the hope that the case filed by the Cord coalition challenging the outcome of the presidential election would open a second round poll extending the windfall.
Millions of shillings changed hands in downtown Nairobi where printing firms ran their machines overtime to meet bulk orders of caps, T-shirts, posters and fliers.
Samuel Mwangi, who operates one such business on Nairobi’s Kilome Road, said he had in the last week of the campaigns printed 20,000 caps for the then candidate for Mombasa governor, Hassan Joho.
“Each cap was priced at approximately Sh100 plus an extra Sh40 branding charge,” he said.
That means Mr Mwangi made Sh2.8 million from this single order — money he ordinarily makes in two months. The entrepreneur said small businesses had also made millions of shillings printing branded key-holders and badges.
A seven-centimetre badge — the most preferred size — retailed at Sh50 a piece, Sh10 more than the smaller version, while key-holders cost Sh45.
In the last week of the campaign, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, the Cord senate candidate for Nairobi, placed an order for 5,000 key-holders in the same shop where Kiraitu Murungi, running for Meru senator, asked for 6,000 pieces.
In the last week of the campaign, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, the Cord senate candidate for Nairobi, placed an order for 5,000 key-holders in the same shop where Kiraitu Murungi, running for Meru senator, asked for 6,000 pieces.
The two orders to a single supplier were worth Sh500,000, suggesting that millions more were made in the heat of the campaigns when it was not uncommon to received five such orders in a day.
T-shirts printing has been big business in every election with the number and size of orders determining how much the entrepreneurs earn from a supply deal.
The T-shirts are priced around their main features, including whether they are polo or round-neck. The price ranges between Sh150 and Sh280 apiece.
-Business Daily
