Your Campaign Treasurer Is the Person Who Says No
Campaigns appoint a treasurer the way they appoint a patron: as a mark of respect, given to somebody senior who will not do the work. The campaign manager then runs the money, and there is no treasurer at all.
The role only works if it is a job, with tasks, authority and a name against it.
The job, written as a job
A campaign treasurer does six things.
Keeps the donation register, so that every contribution, including in kind, is recorded on the day it arrives. Controls payments, so nothing above the agreed threshold moves without approval. Holds the records, so vouchers and receipts do not live in the pocket of the person who spent the money. Reconciles the bank and mobile money statements against the vouchers, weekly. Prepares the reports the campaign owes, on the dates they are owed. And tells the candidate the truth about the balance, in writing, before the candidate commits to anything large.
Six tasks. Between them they need a few hours a week early on, and most of a person's week in the final stretch.
Who should not hold it
The candidate. The entire value of the role is that somebody other than the candidate can say the money is not there.
The campaign manager. One job exists to spend and the other to control spending, and combining them produces neither. Related: why the signatures have to be separate.
Anybody supplying the campaign, or living with somebody who does. Printing, transport and venues are where campaign money actually goes, and a treasurer with an interest in any of them is a conflict an opponent will raise whether or not anything improper happened.
Anybody seeking nomination in the same cycle. Their attention will leave at precisely the moment yours cannot.
And anybody who cannot be reached. A treasurer who is unavailable for a week teaches the campaign to work around the treasurer, and the workaround becomes the system.
The authority the role needs
Three things, granted in writing at the start.
The right to refuse a payment that has no approval, without having to relitigate it with the campaign manager each time. The right to see everything, including the mobile money line and any account holding campaign funds. And a direct line to the candidate that does not pass through anybody else.
Without the third, a treasurer who finds a problem reports it to the person causing it.
What to hand over on day one, and what to leave for the day they go
A treasurer appointed with nothing but a title will spend the first month working out what already exists, which is a month the campaign does not get back.
Hand over a starter pack instead. A copy of the bank mandate and the account details. The mobile money arrangement and who holds the handset. The numbered receipt books. The voucher template. Whatever donation record exists so far, however incomplete. The current budget. The written approval threshold. And a list of the reporting dates for your seat, taken from the current gazette notice rather than from memory.
If half of those do not exist yet, that list is the treasurer's first work plan, and it should be finished within a fortnight rather than left to accumulate.
Then plan for the departure while the arrival is still fresh. People resign, fall ill, take a job, or get nominated themselves, and in 2027 it will happen in the last quarter more than at any other time, because that is when the pressure is highest.
Write the handover note in the week the treasurer starts, not the week they leave. It should say where the records are, who holds the receipt books, what the signatory arrangement is, what the reporting dates are, and what is outstanding. Keep it current. A campaign that loses its treasurer with a handover note loses a person. A campaign without one loses its record.
Pay them, or accept what unpaid means
An unpaid treasurer is doing a demanding job as a favour, and favours get done last.
If the campaign cannot pay a stipend, reduce the job to what a volunteer can genuinely sustain and give the rest to somebody who is paid. Do not design a role that needs twenty hours a week and then staff it with gratitude.
Appoint one this week, in writing
One page. The name, the six tasks, the threshold above which two approvals are required, the reporting dates, and the date the appointment starts. Both of you sign, both of you keep a copy.
Then hand over the records that already exist, and go through what the campaign owes and when. Related: what your campaign has to report, and to whom.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the campaign manager also be the treasurer?
No, and this is the most common structural mistake in Kenyan campaigns. The campaign manager's job is to turn money into activity as fast as possible, while the treasurer's job is to slow that down enough to record and approve it. One person holding both roles means neither function actually happens, and there is nobody who can tell the candidate that a proposed commitment is unaffordable.
Should a campaign treasurer be paid?
If the role is being done properly it becomes close to full-time work in the final months, and unpaid work gets done last. Either budget a stipend for it or cut the job down to what a volunteer can sustain and pay somebody else for the rest. Designing a twenty-hour-a-week role and staffing it with goodwill is how campaigns end up with no records in the period that matters most.
What happens if the treasurer resigns before the election?
That is common in the final quarter, which is exactly why the handover note is written in the treasurer's first week rather than their last. It should record where the records are held, who has the receipt books, the signatory arrangement, the reporting dates and anything outstanding. With that note the campaign loses a person, and without it the campaign loses its record.