African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
    • Our philosophy
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate
  • Fellowship

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • Somaliland
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • eSwatini
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
    • Climate crisis
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • From the fellows
    • Radical Activism in Africa
    • On Food Security & COVID19
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
    • Into Africa Podcast
    • Africa Science Focus Podcast
    • Think African Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
KenyaPoliticsTop story
Home›African Arguments›Country›East›Kenya›How to win elections in Kenya: be rich and don’t be a woman

How to win elections in Kenya: be rich and don’t be a woman

By Karuti Kanyinga & Tom Mboya
September 28, 2021
1444
0
Ahead of Kenya's 2017 elections, the White Ribbon Campaign march to promote their rapid response hotline which responds to violence against women in elections. Credit: Carla Chianese, IFES.

In Kenya’s previous elections, senators spent an average $319,000 in getting elected.

Ahead of Kenya's 2017 elections, the White Ribbon Campaign march to promote their rapid response hotline which responds to violence against women in elections. Credit: Carla Chianese, IFES.

Ahead of Kenya’s 2017 elections, the White Ribbon Campaign march to promote their rapid response hotline which responds to violence against women in elections. Credit: Carla Chianese, IFES.

Kenya’s general elections, scheduled for 9 August 2022, are now less than a year away. It’s too early to say what the country’s political landscape will look like after the vote, but we do know something about who will get elected – those who can afford it.

In Kenya, campaign financing laws and regulations are rarely enforced. Some new rules were recently proposed, but politicians are keen to avoid discussing electoral expenditure. They know that winning elections is more about spending money – and then making money – than worrying about constituents’ wellbeing or coming up with a compelling political ideology. As our recent research in collaboration the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD), and Mzalendo shows, this means that access to Kenya’s political spheres is based on affluence rather than passion or aptitude.

We found that candidates who were successfully elected to the National Assembly in the 2017 general elections spent an average KSh18.2 million ($166,000) during their campaigns. Those elected to the Senate expended an average KSh35 million ($319,000). In many constituencies – especially those in which one party dominates – most of the expenditure occurs during party primaries. Senators, for instance, spent an average KSh19.2 million ($175,000) during these internal contests to win their party’s nomination, compared to KSh16.3 million ($148,000) in the subsequent national election.

In both instances, the vast majority of costs seem to have come from the aspirants’ own pockets. Three-quarters of the those surveyed said they received no or very little support from their political party.

Running as a woman

To put it simply: if you want to win a political position in Kenya, be rich and spend big. The more you spend, the greater your chances of winning – unless you are a woman.

Our research also found a significant gender disparity. Far fewer women make it to the ballot or win seats but they spend significantly more. In trying to win seats in the National Assembly, for instance, women spent an average of KSh23.6 million ($240,000) compared to men’s average of KSh17 million ($155,000).

Female candidates face multiple challenges arising from Kenya’s deep-seated patriarchal norms. For example, it is seen as improper for women to lead largescale rallies or campaign late into the evening. This means that they must rely on more costly and labour-intensive strategies such as smaller events, door-to-door canvassing, and face-to-face meetings. Female candidates are also typically held to higher standards than men, while many voters simply believe women should not be in politics to begin with. As one respondent told us, “some people still think that the woman’s place is in the kitchen”. Kenya’s “big man” politics puts women at a disadvantage too. In this political culture, candidates’ ability to solve local challenges is seen to be determined by their proximity to the centre of power, and this usually means being male.

There have been attempts to increase female representation in Kenya politics. The 2010 constitution, for instance, created a new “county woman representative” position that set aside 47 seats in the National Assembly that only female candidates could contest. This has increased the proportion of women in parliament, but has also had the undesirable side-effect that remaining 290 directly-elected seats have been perceived by many as “men-only seats”.

Fixing the system

In Kenya, politics is the preserve of the rich or, more specifically, rich men. To change this, the country needs a holistic, transparent and effective campaign finance infrastructure. To begin with, the 2014 Election Campaign Finance Act, which set spending limits, must be actively enforced. It is only with caps on expenditure that Kenya’s vastly skewed playing field can be levelled and the transactional nature of politics can be challenged.

It will also be necessary to reject the prevailing perception that women should only compete for affirmative action seats. Female candidates will need to be encouraged and supported to compete for the full range of positions. The constitutional provision that no more than two-thirds of the National Assembly or Senate can be of the same gender needs to be enforced, while gender quotas for party primaries and a reduction of electoral fees for women contesting at all levels could also help increase representation.

Unfortunately, the people with the greatest capacity to change the status quo are the very ones who most benefit from it. This means that the 2022 elections will be likely to follow the same patterns as those in 2017. Less affluent Kenyans and women will, once again, be largely excluded.


 

Previous Article

Young Africans are fleeing farming. Agritech can ...

Next Article

If there must be war in Ethiopia…

Karuti Kanyinga & Tom Mboya

Prof. Karuti Kanyinga is based at the University of Nairobi, Institute for Development Studies (IDS). Follow him on twitter at @karutikk. Tom Mboya is an independent governance researcher. Follow him on twitter at @TomMboya.

0 comments

  1. simon mureu 12 October, 2021 at 08:12

    AND EVEN IF YOU SAY IT EITHER WAY
    One must be tribal and understand how to twist the minds of—my brother–ndugu yangu

  2. simon mureu 12 October, 2021 at 08:19

    The on going fighting in Ethiopia is like that Mexico did to mayan. Killing and women rape is highly taking place in Tigray and other regions and the UNITED NATIONS ought work even harder to bring down this deadly conflict

Leave a reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Politics

    Sudan’s Census and the National Assembly Elections

  • Will incumbent Danny Faure be re-elected in the Seychelles elections? Credit: Chatham House.
    PoliticsSeychelles

    Seychelles elections: Just 193 votes decided it last time

  • French and Chad military participate in a flag ceremony to commemorate the launch of Operation Barkhane. Credit: U.S. Army Africa photos by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Martin S. Bonner.
    ChadEditor's PicksPolitics

    Chad: France firmly backs continuity, but will the people?

Subscribe to our newsletter

Click here to subscribe to our free weekly newsletter and never miss a thing!

  • 81.7K+
    Followers

Find us on Facebook

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Recent Posts

  • The unaccountability of Liberia’s polluting miners
  • Africa Elections 2023: All the upcoming votes
  • “Poking the Leopard’s Anus”: Legal Spectacle and Queer Feminist Politics
  • Introducing Parselelo and a new climate focus
  • The ‘Hustler’ Fund: Kenya’s Approach to National Transformation

Editor’s Picks

Editor's PicksSociety

The pandemic has set gender equality back. Its legacy must not.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on everyone, but women have shouldered the bulk of the burden at home and at work. Most years, International Women’s Day offers an opportunity ...
  • kitenge in Kenya

    Can a Chinese import ever be authentically African?

    By April Zhu
    August 21, 2019
  • A Ukraine solidarity protest in Trafalgar Square, London, on 26 February. Credit: Michael Boyle.

    Standing with Ukrainian refugees must mean standing with all refugees

    By Elena Liber
    March 1, 2022
  • In 2015, thousands in Burundi took to the streets to protest against President Nkurunziza running for a third term. Credit: Igor Rugwiza.

    I cry, not for Nkurunziza, but for the lives he broke

    By Ketty Nivyabandi
    June 10, 2020
  • Students graduating from Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Nigeria. Credit: Rajmund Dabrowski/ANN.

    “We copy it from them”: How campus politics sets scene for big man politics

    By Olayide Oluwafunmilayo Soaga
    June 16, 2022

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies.
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu