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During the 2002 General Election, women were caught flat-footed and this impacted negatively on the number that got elected into Parliament. Out of 133 women who vied for parliamentary seats in 2002, only 44 were nominated and only nine won elections.
"Women believed in fair play and naively sought to contest party nominations by playing by the rules. They saw male candidates show up with certificates for nominations as party candidates even where the results of elective process were incomplete and undetermined," says Amollo.
Party nominations present an exceptional hurdle for women. Yes! Parties have their owners and unfortunately more than 90% of them are not women.
USAWA special report on nominations will delve deep into the nomination process, what happened 5 five years ago at a time like this? What is likely to happen now with the major parties blotted with aspirants recording highs of over 3000? What strategies can we put in place to ensure that the aspirants we’ve come to know and admire bring forth the change that we deserve?
Women are of the opinion that approaching politics from a male standpoint makes it easy for the men to succeed. The plan is for women to design their own winning strategy.
Women must participate in party politics
Dr Adams Oloo, a political scientist at the University of Nairobi, says there is need for women to focus on party politics.
"The current Constitution doesn't have provisions for independent candidates. There is no other route to Parliament except through the political parties," he explains.
Oloo says parties speak of women in their manifestos but there are no women in key decision-making structures in the parties.
If women are not involved in setting the agenda there is little they can do in actualising it.
Oloo calls on the women not to be content with the women's wing but to garner to get positions that matter in party organs.
There is a provision for a third representation of women in political parties but there are no effective sanctions in case of breaches.
The opportunity for nomination losers
There was a looming fear among aspirants on the new law requiring parties to submit the names of their nominees five days before the official nomination date. This would have ideally meant that nominations losers would not have had a chance to switch parties before the elections.
Given that the main parties; ODM, ODM-K have set November 16 as their day of nominations while PNU will hold their primaries between the 14th and 16th of November, which meant that the lists of their candidates were to be handed over to the commission on November 19, leaving little room for losers to defect to other parties before the deadline.
On the 6th of November, the ECK during a meeting with party officials agreed to relax the rule which would provide some room for those who fail to clinch the tickets of their favourite parties to seek alternatives and still have their names on the ballot papers.
Sisi Kwa Sisi, Agano and other parties have carried advertisements promising direct nomination for parliamentary candidates with lower nominations fees than those of the major parties. This presents avenues for nomination losers to still get into the ballot paper. In the last election, a big strategy employed by our female aspirants who were locked out of party nominations was to switch to smaller parties which would have been virtually impossible had this status quo lingered. Whether this translates into an actual vote at the election is yet to be seen.
The direct nominations offered here, may be a welcome approach to female aspirants who have little resources to pay nomination fees twice as was the case with Debra Okumu who after paying Ksh. 40,000 to LDP was told that her opponent had already been cleared. She moved to SDP where she again had to pay 23,000Ksh. Within three days she paid out Ksh 63,000 that was not refundable.
However migration to smaller parties, if managed well and in good time can give a chance for women with good grassroot support a chance to get to Parliament. We encourage women aspirants to identify these political parties to ensure that they still make it to the ballot paper.
Nominations: Ensure a free and fair process
As parties seize up for the elections, a major task for ECK will be to deal firmly with unfair party nominations, which have in the past undermined internal party democracy.
In constituencies where the sponsorship of certain political parties is synonymous with election to Parliament, the nomination exercise has degenerated into a political jigsaw and fertile ground for graft and political wheeler-dealing. ECK must crack the whip and rein in errant parties unwilling to play by their nomination rules.
To its credit, the Electoral Commission has already warned that it will lock out candidates who are not nominated in accordance with party rules and the provisions of the National Assembly and Presidential Act.
Political parties on the other hand have come out strongly as far as free and fair nominations are concerned. Some incumbents and political top-dogs have been accused of attaining automatic nomination promises from political parties across the board. It is said that these aspirants have been sending emissaries to prevail upon the political parties to accord them soft landing spot courtesy of their sycophantic approach to politics devoid of service delivery to the galaxy of suffering electorates.
PNU, ODM and ODM Kenya have stated categorically that no direct nominations will be offered to any candidate except for special circumstances say for members of the Pentagon and those who have no challengers. This still remains to be seen as we the nominations draw ever so near.
Some measures that have been put in place to ensure a free and fair nomination include guidelines to ensure the aspirants know what is expected of them, trained constituency officials to supervise the nominations, votes counted and recorded by the returning and polling officers at the various stations.
Candidates who have their agents present at nomination will also ensure that everything goes well. These agents must be of integrity and vocal enough to ensure that any hitches are dealt with in good time. Trained and well-equipped agents will be a must if our aspirants are to make it.
Be a leader who happens to be a woman
Prof Ruth Oniang'o, Nominated MP, says it is not good enough to rally for a position purely based on gender. Oniang'o urges women to rally for positions because they intend to provide something different in terms of leadership.
"We want effective women. Some women haven't made a change it doesn't mean that if you are a female you'll make a difference.
"What is needed is good leadership and good politics. If that will come from a woman then it is even better," Oniang'o says.
The nominated MP says the advantage women have is that they tend to deal with social issues.
"Women care for everybody. We are the bedrock of society. You destroy a woman you destroy society," Oniang'o explains.
Women's involvement in non-political positions is important. However, Oniang'o points out that in Parliament numbers matter when it comes to lobbying.
She, therefore, calls upon women to become visible in the grassroots and party politics in order for them to work their way to Parliament. In the process women need to be educated on their rights so that they are actually lobbying for what they understand.
"The point," says Oniang'o, "Is to give people a reason to vote for you."
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