For those who don’t know kaikai mahn, it’s jargon used to describe cronies of PNG members of parliament.

The kaikai mahns’ responsibilities and relationships to the MPs vary, but they have two strong objectives.

First, they benefit (or ‘eat’ - translated as ‘kaikai’ in Tok Pisin) from the MPs hand.

Second, they viciously defend the MPs online when the MPs are criticised.

Beyond defence of the MPs actions, they are mostly behind fake accounts attacking political opponents of the MPs.

The kaikai mahn people range from church pastors to so called youth leaders.

Their platforms range from TikTok to church pulpits, where a politician is given space to address the congregation after main church event is over.

And in some instances, the politician’s sermon is more popular than the pastor’s.

When you criticise a PNG politician, chances are you’ll be challenged by several kaikai mahn even before the politician has responded.

But most times the politician doesn’t need to respond. He relies on a team of kaikai mahn who act as attorneys to defend him robustly.

The benefits to the kaikai mahn vary widely. They can take the form of a university kid building his CV for employment.

They can be journalists, whose newspaper makes a fortune running featured stories or advertisements paid for by the MP.

They may be pastors whose church receives a donated church vehicle.

They can be women leaders who get funding for their associations - often misapplied and, due to poor acquittals, and for which the leaders are not held accountable.

State resources in the form of improvement funds are now effectively controlled by the MPs. They reward the kaikai mahn by making them their defence attorneys.

The more these MPs are defended by kaikai mahn, the less they feel accountable to the populace.

They are almost immune to criticism, there being such a diverse pool of attorneys to defend them.

There is a revolving door of kaikai mahn: as one loses popularity with an MP, the MP drops him and takes on another one. And the circle repeats itself.