Unscrupulous poll agents want to exploit me
My sidekick and chief political strategist, Moks, can sometimes be a bother. Like last week, he insisted that I get polling agents to guard my votes. This irked me because I was sure he knew how popular I was. Nobody would dare do anything funny with my votes.
“How many times have I told you I don’t need agents?” I snarled at him.
“Surely, Mhesh. You need them. All other candidates have them,” he said with a look of conviction on his face. “And you need them urgently. The poll agents training starts tomorrow.”
Realising I was not going to win this argument, I gave in. “What do we do now?” I asked.
“Let us recruit agents immediately,” came the swift answer.
“Do you have some in mind?” I asked.
“We can get Nzaya to be the chief agent. He will then get people he can work with.” I started at the mention of Nzaya. This was a fellow I had worked with before. In fact, he used to be my handler before Moks came into the scene. Nzaya and I had parted ways after I discovered he was having some shady deals with my main rival Alfafa. His explanation that the deals were purely business related did not convince me, so I showed him the door.
“Why do you want to engage that double dealer?” I asked.
“Mhesh, trust me. He will do a good job. He has been in a financial crisis and will be willing to work for anything you offer him.” I believed my sidekick and gave him the go-ahead to engage Nzaya.
Later in the day, Moks appeared in my office with Nzaya in tow. “Mhesh, here we are. We have talked and agreed with him,” he announced. I looked at Nzaya for confirmation, and he nodded in agreement.
“The cost?” I asked.
Nzaya let out a brittle laugh and said, “Mhesh, you know me. Hatuwezi kosana. I know you are an independent candidate, so hatutakufinya sana. You will just give my people lunch and something small for airtime,” he said. We agreed that he gets ten other people who would help in manning the polling stations.
“Consider it done, Mheshimiwa.”
Since the agents training would begin the next day, and I wanted things to go on without a hitch, I gave Nzaya some money to take care of the agents during the exercise.
“That should be enough for your transport and airtime. I will give you 10 thousand each for the actual work after election day.” I saw what was clearly a look of satisfaction on Nzaya’s face. A deal had been sealed.
It was with satisfaction that I received reports about my agents’ active participation in the training. The money I had given them for transport and airtime was not a waste, after all.
Last Friday, which was the third day of training, I was awoken by a phone call from Nzaya. “We want to see you, Mhesh,” he said.
“You and who?” I asked.
“Your poll agents,”came the answer.
“Where are you people?”
“At your gate,” came the startling answer. I was still in bed, and here were the agents demanding an audience with me. I asked for a few minutes to prepare.
I then walked out of the house to the gate where I found Nzaya and his group. A look at their faces told me to prepare for trouble.
“Mhesh, it is about the pay,” Nzaya said.
“Which pay?” I asked.
“The 10 thousand bob you promised to give us after the elections is too little,” he said, followed by murmurs from the group.
“So how much do you want?”
“It is like this, Mhesh,” said some fellow who looked more agitated than the rest, “We are going to work for three days, sindio?”
“Yes, came a chorus.”
“We want 10 thousand a day,” said Mr agitated. I felt a lump go down my throat. “Mhesh, give us what we want ama tujipange,” the man fumed. I don’t know what stopped me from flaring up. What did these fellow take me for? After I had already spent so much money on them, they now wanted to stab me at the back? It then occurred to me that I was at their mercy.
“Ok, I will look into it. Please continue attending the training,” I said with a calmness that surprised even me. Thankfully, the agents walked away. Well, the fact is that I am not going to pay them those crazy amounts they want. I can be my own agent if need be. Wacha wakae.
