NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — In the shadow of a shiny thousand-dollar campaign billboard, one of many in Kenya’s capital, street vendors are struggling to earn even 200 shillings (1 $.68) a day and often pocket none.

Kenya’s August 9 elections are opening the scars of inequality and corruption as East Africa’s economic hub chooses a successor to President Uhuru Kenyatta. The very wealthy son of the country’s founding leader, Kenyatta has deflected allegations of corruption by calling for transparency, but has done little in a decade in power to enable it.

Vendors on a barren plot along Nairobi’s outer ring road can hardly grasp the huge sums of money being spent on next week’s elections. Few can. In Kenya, candidates are not required to publicly account for campaign donations or expenditures. But voters watched the helicopters and long convoys that ferried top candidates across the country for months.

“They spend millions of dollars, but I don’t know if it’s their own money or the public’s money,” said Martin Wambua, who sells second-hand clothes and is rarely able to save anything. either on his income.

“I know that (election expenses) can finance more than 10 people a day,” said Joseph Kaguthi, who walks around selling baked goods and says he often only eats one meal a day. “But I’m a poor man, and maybe my way of speaking is far from what it is.”

Rising food and fuel prices, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and following economic pain from the COVID-19 pandemic, add to traditional ethnic tensions in a vote if tightly disputed that Kenya could make it to a second round for the first time.

How the country of 56 million will cope with prolonged uncertainty is a major question given a recent history of rocky elections. The vote “will be an opportunity for Kenya to show its democracy to the world,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, pleading for “a peaceful and transparent democratic process”.

The 2017 vote in Kenya saw the results overturned by the courts, a first in Africa. Longtime opposition candidate Raila Odinga boycotted the ordered new vote and declared himself the “people’s president” in a mock swearing-in that led to allegations of treason. The standoff ended when Kenyatta and Odinga, the son of Kenya’s first vice president, shared a public handshake.

Now, in the latest twist of Kenya’s shifting alliances, Kenyatta is backing former rival Odinga to succeed him after falling out with his vice-president, William Ruto, 55, the other leading presidential contender and former ally of Odinga.

Ruto has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity for his role in the violence following the 2007 elections that killed more than 1,000 people after Odinga alleged he was defrauded of the victoire. An ICC indictment is hardly an obstacle to the presidency; Kenyatta was also charged over the turmoil. Both men saw their cases come to an end amid allegations of witness tampering.

Considered one of Kenya’s wealthiest men after a decade as vice president, Ruto portrays himself to the young and poor as a “scammer” who had humble beginnings as a chicken seller, unlike the elite circles of Kenyatta and Odinga.

He says he seeks greater agricultural productivity and financial inclusion. Agriculture is one of the main drivers of Kenya’s economy and about 70% of the rural workforce works in agriculture, while informal street vendors make up the majority of non-farm work.

“Our economic system is rigged against little people,” Ruto said in a campaign video. The video emerged as a court ordered his wealthy running mate, Rigathi Gachagua, to repay the state around $1.6 million which was determined to be the proceeds of corruption.

Ruto said he would accept the election result “whatever it is”.

Odinga, 77, who is in her fifth and likely final bid to win the presidency, is campaigning closely with her running mate Martha Karua, a former justice minister who could become Kenya’s first female vice president.

Karua has caught the attention of women in a country that does not respect a gender quota for elective bodies like parliament and where female candidates are often harassed.

Odinga, famous for being imprisoned while fighting for multi-party democracy decades ago, pledged cash handouts to Kenya’s poorest while saying “the middle class, of course, know how to take care of themselves. of itself”. He said he would accept the election results “as long as they are free and fair”.

When asked how much they were spending on the election, an Odinga spokesperson told The Associated Press they would conduct a financial audit to find out at the end of the campaign. A Ruto spokesperson did not respond.

Ruto and Odinga say they will fight corruption, but non-governmental organizations sigh at Kenya’s failure to tackle the corruption that plagues daily life. Vendors on Nairobi’s Outer Ring Road described having to bribe hospitals for prompt treatment and the city’s notorious inspection officers to avoid alleged petty crimes.

Corruption is reportedly widespread among election candidates. Home Secretary Fred Matiangi described parliamentary candidates handing out just 100 shillings (84 cents) to win votes in villages.

The independent and underfunded Electoral Boundaries Commission, which sought to cap presidential campaign spending at 4.4 billion shillings ($36 million), accused some politicians of buying identity cards to prevent them to vote for rivals.

“Of the 214 people blacklisted by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission as morally and ethically unfit to hold public office, the (electoral commission) only banned six people,” Transparency said. International Kenya and other watchdogs in June. For the rest, “the commission seems to have raised its hands in the air.”

Kenyans want a peaceful election with results accepted by all parties.

“If we fight it will backfire more on us than on them,” said Andrew Atonya, who is part of a production company that staged a play in Nairobi asking voters to avoid falling prey to division. elections. “They mistreat each other,” he said of the contestants, “but behind the curtain, they’re friends.”