A Sponsor will come through with the household expenses, school fees, garments, holidays, even support kids that are not theirs; some heavyweights will even support the sponsored person's siblings, parents and in rare cases boyfriends/girlfriends.
I remember a very consensual but lopsided arrangement by a young couple known to me a while back. The Sponsor, a prominent businessman in a rural town would regularly come to pick the girl from her bedsitter abode that he has komboad for her. On some occasions he would chance in on her good-for-nothing live-in mogoka-chewing, kumikumi-addicted boyfriend, who depended on the girl for his upkeep. I'm not sure what she got from him in return. Maybe he was a good cook, but I digress. Back to the sponsor's visit...no blows or harsh words were ever exchanged. The young man had been introduced to him as a relative and was willing to keep up the appearances as such. They would all get into the big-bellied chap's plush ride and drive off to sample the town's nightlife. The young man, I suppose out of his own volition or as a result of severe economic emasculation, would be dropped outside a popular nightclub that he loved and would be handed a generous clubbing stipend, while the ageing alpha male would proceed to his preferred evening hangout with the girl for a night of viagra-fuelled carousal.
Of course a scenario like the one above is an exception, though certainly very likely. For many others, it could lead to brutal crimes of passion and requires tracks to be well covered. That is why an uncomfortable and inquisitive boyfriend will be told that the new VW Golf was purchased through a bank loan, and the bank is holding on to the logbook as security. Or the jewelry was a gift at the workplace for exemplary performance. A girlfriend will be calmed by being told that the older woman who keeps calling is a spiritual mentor, whose calling is to mentor young men. At times, at the instigation of the Sponsor, a girl will engineer beef with her partner and refuse to be calmed down. She may then ask for 'time apart' that weekend 'to think things over'. The trusting boy will unknowingly hand his girl a visa to spend the weekend with her sponsor at the Great Rift Lodge. Being 'mad', she will of course ignore his calls and texts and will have cooled off by Sunday evening to 'talk things over' and accept his profuse apologies.
Sponsors never make it to the Instagram posts, yet they unselfishly (well, not quite) provide the pecuniary facilitation. Sometimes it may be out of choice, since their sons and daughters ply the same digital space and delicate balances may get upset. Sometimes the sponsored entity may feel some discomfort consorting with their friends' mothers, fathers or relatives and feel the need to keep things under wraps. Sometimes it could be a lecturer or a boss which can lead to conflicts of interest, a cleric, politician or other public figures, giving the more reason why utmost discretion must be exercised.
Whatever the reason you have for keeping Mr. or Ms. Sponsor under the radar, it's imperative that we all remain cognizant of the contribution they make to our fragile economy, where unemployment figures keep soaring, and honor them with a day or a week.
The legal heads, who constitute a handsome portion of the sponsor fraternity, can guide us on how to lobby the lawmakers (who are on the top of the sponsoring food chain) to give this cog of Kenya's economy due recognition.
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