POLITICS-KENYA
"I Almost Have No Fare to Come Back to Nairobi"
Joyce Mulama
NAIROBI, Sep 4 (IPS) - Posters, campaign appearances, radio spots and television adverts: all are essential for winning office in Kenya's general elections, set for December, and all cost money that parliamentary candidates are responsible for raising in this East African country.
Certain women aspirants have experienced difficulties funding their campaigns, however - perhaps an indication of how politics remains very much a man's game in Kenya. Just eight percent of seats in the nation's 222-member parliament are held by women.
"I have no resources of my own...I tried fundraising from well wishers and I met many obstacles, with some people calling me a beggar," Jennifer Masis, who has her sights set on a parliamentary seat in Kwanza constituency in the western Rift Valley Province, told IPS. She is campaigning under the banner of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya, which last month split from the country's main opposition party: the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).
Pamela Mburia tells a similar tale. She aims to win the Nithi parliamentary seat in Eastern Province, but has yet to decide on party allegiance.
"The roads are impassable and one has to hire a truck to be able to reach some of the areas. It is expensive...I spend up to the last coin, and sometimes I almost have no fare to come back to Nairobi. I depend entirely on my salary," she said in an interview with IPS.
Tradition and culture have long conspired to give men control of finances in Kenya.
"Women are disadvantaged because they have no resources. Campaigns require that the one wooing voters ferries them(self) from place to place in four wheel drive cars, prints campaign materials at their cost, and dishes out handouts. These are expensive affairs that require lots of money," Kennedy Masiime, executive director of the Centre for Governance and Development, told IPS.
The question that begs asking is whether political parties are giving their women candidates enough support with fundraising, to help them overcome these drawbacks.
The National Rainbow Coalition-Kenya (NARC-K) claims its conscience is clear. This party was formed after the ruling National Rainbow Coalition - NARC - split in 2005 over a process of constitutional review. Reports indicate that President Mwai Kibaki may stand on the NARC-K ticket in his bid to get re-elected in December.
Sande Oyolo, NARC-K's director in charge of special programmes, told IPS that the party assisted women candidates in need. Also, "If it is a candidate who requires a powerful meeting in her constituency, we rally behind her."
The ODM says it intends to support women parliamentary candidates by campaigning alongside them across Kenya.
"This is now the new concept that we are adopting to help expose these women. This will also lure more women into politics, because we will be standing with them and asking the electorate to vote for women," William Ruto, a leader in the party, said in an interview with IPS.
Some women's groups aren't waiting to see whether such promises translate into Kenya shillings, however: they have started to raise money for female candidates, to give them a better shot at election victory.
"We are going to mobilise resources for women. We will call international organisations (and) we will call well wishers," Health Minister Charity Ngilu told IPS on behalf of the Kenya Women Parliamentarians Association. IPS was not able to establish how much money has been raised to date under this initiative.
The League of Kenya Women Voters, a non-governmental organisation based in the capital of Nairobi, is another of the groups stepping up to the plate - albeit to a limited degree.
"Many women have declared an interest in vying for elected positions, but not all of them have the capacity to go somewhere. We will support only a few women who have shown the capacity to try and get over the various hurdles during campaigns; the hurdles include (overcoming) constraints with funds," Executive Director Irene Oloo told IPS.
To date, about 300 women have been in contact with the league about running for parliamentary and local government seats.
It is also hoped that the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) might assist women in terms of the new Political Parties Bill, currently being discussed by parliament.
Under the proposed bill, the state would fund political parties. A provision in the proposed law links the amount of funding parties can claim to the number of women candidates in those parties. In addition, it is expected that the ECK would have a say over how parties spent their allocations.
Cyprian Nyamwamu of the National Convention Executive Council, an umbrella body for groups dealing with constitutional reform and improved governance, says he hopes the ECK will act "to have a section of parties' funds go to helping women candidates."
"Let political parties be given money to assist women candidates. That is the only way women politicians will be able to compete on an equal footing with their male counterparts," Nyamwamu told IPS.
Ruto puts the cost of a parliamentary campaign at between 44,000 and 59,000 dollars, no small amount in a country of widespread poverty.
But, warns Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, "A lot of expenses are because a lot of the money goes to 'mobilising' people - which turns out to be bribes and handouts. If you were to do a clean campaign, it would not cost millions of shillings."
"What we need is a system and structure which controls how people spend money for campaigns. Such a system is lacking."
In the complex world of Kenyan politics, however, even a handout may not always fit neatly into the category of bribe. As Mburia notes, "It is agony when the weekend comes, because that is when I visit my constituency to see my people, some of whom travel from so far to listen to me. After the meetings, they expect you to give them fare back to their homes. Sometimes they do not listen with their ears, but their mouths: they need to eat and you cannot run away from them."
Figures on the number of women who are braving the odds to contest this year's elections will only become known three months before polling.
General elections - for the presidency, parliament and local government - are held every five years in Kenya. (END/2007)
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