Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has launched a public fundraising campaign for the Linda Mwananchi movement, urging Kenyans to contribute Sh10 each through a newly unveiled paybill to support the movement's operations and activities across the country.
Sifuna said the initiative is aimed at proving that the movement is funded by ordinary Kenyans rather than wealthy sponsors, dismissing claims that it is backed by powerful financiers. He maintained that every shilling collected would be accounted for publicly, saying transparency is central to the movement's operations.
"The critics should choose one battle. If I'm someone's project, then I have money; why do they then say that I do not have money? They should choose one, either I have or do not have money. Either I have a sponsor or do not have one," Sifuna said during an interview at Mulembe FM.
He explained that the paybill has been registered under his official name because Linda Mwananchi has not yet been registered as a political party.
"I want to explain to Kenyans about our paybill. We have not registered Linda Mwananchi as a party, so when we are looking for a paybill account, we use our official names. You will see my name on the paybill. The paybill number is 3033049. You will see the name E Sifuna."
The senator appealed to supporters to make Sh10 contributions, saying the movement would regularly disclose the amount raised and how the money is spent.
"Send me those Sh10, and I shall later announce how much we have raised. Because we have agreed on equality, and the paybill is under my name, when we sit with other leaders, we show them all the money that has come in so far and how we have utilised it," he said.
According to Sifuna, the money raised is used to meet operational costs during the movement's engagements, including paying service providers and facilitating logistics for rallies held in different parts of the country.
"We use the money to pay DJ Spider and also pay for other logistics. For example, we used the money to support our brother who passed on in Kisii during our rally. The money came from Linda Mwananchi," he said.
Sifuna insisted the fundraising campaign is not intended to enrich leaders but to ensure the movement can continue reaching supporters across the country.
"We are not looking to enrich ourselves. We do not need too much money. What we need is to cover the logistics of attending some of these meetings," he said.
He also revealed that the movement's most expensive rally so far was held in Kisumu, costing about Sh2.6 million, with much of the expenditure going towards security following threats received ahead of the event.
"Our most expensive rally was Kisumu, which was about Sh2.6 million; that was mainly used for security because we received threats," Sifuna said