That is the Deputy President, William Ruto, at a Catholic church harambee. Late last year Mr. Ruto donated about Kshs. 17m (USD 170,000) over the span of two months.

May be I have watched too many crime shows. But bundles of cash in a briefcase sounds and looks bad. Even with Catholic bishops in the picture.

Also, Kenya has a pretty sophisticated financial system with a population that is the most banked in Africa. Why not write cheques for these big harambee contributions? Without casting aspersions on the character of the Hon. Deputy President, it might be good for the overall health of the Kenyan financial system if it was possible to keep track of such huge financial transactions. May be Governor Patrick Njoroge can require that any donations above Kshs. 10,000 must be in the form of a cheque. Commercial banks have incentives to lobby hard for this, no?

Of course there is also the possibility that some banks are actually benefitting from this cash-based charitable industry — by dabbling in the business of cleaning up would-be donations. Just a random thought.

Also, does the government of Kenya offer any tax incentives for charitable donations? And how big of an incentive would be needed for generous politicians to start keeping track of all their harambee contributions?