Money and tribal affiliation have long dominated Kenya’s political scene. But a young woman with neither sees the adoption of a new constitution and need for change as her opportunity to win the presidential race.
Kingwa Kamencu broke down in tears as she spoke about the state of the nation’s roads during a press conference in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, last year. It was during that same conference last September that she announced her plans to run for president.
Emotion choked her voice as she recounted how a close friend had died in a road accident caused by reckless driving. Kenyans have been dying on the roads, she said, yet the government never seems to take any action. She announced that improving road safety would be a priority if she became president.
The 28-year-old Kenyan woman had just returned to the country for holidays from Oxford University, where she recently obtained two master’s degrees on a Rhodes Scholarship, one in creative writing and the other in African studies. She used the press conference to officially launch her presidential bid.
“People said I was weak, that I was pretending, all sorts of things,” she says. “But politicians are human beings, and they too get emotional.”
As a political novice, Kamencu faces challenges competing against experienced male politicians and incumbents in Kenya, where tribal affiliations and money have traditionally dominated politics. But Kamencu and her supporters say that now is the time for her to bring fresh ideas to citizens looking for change. Kamencu says she has overcome tribal, monetary and gender barriers in the past and plans to do so again.
Kenya will hold general elections in March 2013, when Kamencu will be on the ballot with more than 15 presidential candidates. President Mwai Kibaki, who has already served the maximum of two terms, cannot run again.
Tribe or community numbers have always determined the winner of elections in Kenya, says Martin Oloo, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a political commentator. And the coming elections will be no different.
Some of Kenya’s biggest communities are Kikuyu, Luo, Kalenjin and Kamba, he says, and each of them has its own presidential candidate.
Current Prime Minister Raila Odinga of the Luo community is the man to beat, according to opinion polls published in early October by Ipsos, a global market research company.
The second most popular candidate according to the polls, current Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, is from the Kikuyu community. The third, current Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, hails from the Kamba community.
“And where has she been?” Oloo asks, referring to Kamencu. “Where did you find her?”
After announcing her plans to contest for the presidency in September 2011, Kamencu spent a few months visiting Kenyans displaced by the 2007 and 2008 post-election violence, which stemmed from allegations of electoral fraud.
She then flew to the U.K. in April to complete her degrees. After returning to Kenya in August 2012, she called a press conference during October to announce that she was resuming her campaign.
Her current anonymity as a candidate will be a hindrance, Oloo says, when most of these candidates are veteran politicians receiving money and support from Kenya’s most powerful communities.
While they hop from one county to another in their helicopters seeking votes, Kamencu says she can hardly afford to drive across the expansive counties.
One of the challenges Kamencu currently faces is raising the 500,000-shilling ($6,000) nomination fee required by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.
She says she is now hanging her hopes on a case filed in court by Youth Agenda, an organization working to enhance the contribution of youth in governance and development,
which seeks to waive the nomination fee.
“Kenyans already pay for elections through taxes, so I don’t see why these fees are necessary,” Kamencu says. “There are many young people like me who would like to take leadership positions in this country, but they do not have the money.”
Voters say this lack of money and support will take Kamencu out of the race.
“Most Kenyans don’t know her,” says James Maina, a resident of Nairobi who will be voting in the 2013 elections. “And even if she has the capacity to be the president of this country, she doesn’t have the resources to crisscross the counties to seek support.”
Kamencu is from the Meru community of central Kenya, but she was born and raised in Nairobi, where people from many different communities live. She says she doesn’t expect people to vote for her on the basis of her tribe, but rather because of her principles.
“These elections have provided an opportunity for us to do politics differently, and I’m not going to let it pass,” Kamencu says of the first elections since the country adopted its new constitution in 2010. “It’s time to break away from politics of tribalism and corruption.”
Kamencu, who describes herself as a writer, poet, on-and-off journalist and perpetual student, says she is not afraid to take on the favorites. Instead, she is ready for the opportunity to tackle serious issues and excited about the prospect of change.
“It is unacceptable how we have made the abnormal normal,” Kamencu says. “It is OK for people to live in deplorable conditions in slums. It is normal for people to die in road accidents and tribal clashes.”
Kamencu says food security is also a top priority for her campaign.
“It is sad that 48 years after independence, people are still dying from hunger in some parts of the country while there’s abundance of food in others,” she says.
Anne Muturi, a resident of Nairobi and one of Kamencu’s ardent supporters, says the candidate is showing Kenyans that they hold the solutions to their problems.
“Most people dismiss her, but I see her as someone who is trying to change how politics is done,” says Muturi, who attended Kamencu’s announcement in October. “No one politician has all the answers.”
Kamencu is running on behalf of the Labour Party of Kenya, which formed in 1998 with a focus on the welfare of workers, gender equality and equal opportunities for all Kenyans.
“The Labour Party supports anyone that declares interest in whatever seat, irrespective of their gender and age,” says Martin Gavole, executive director of the Labour Party. “Kingwa is the only member who wants to run for the presidency for now, and we support her. If someone else comes up, we’ll subject them to a nomination process.”
Oloo agrees that despite any setbacks, Kamencu should feel free to pursue the presidency and present her ideas to the Kenyan people.
“She has a right as a Kenyan to offer herself for leadership,” Oloo says. “It is up to Kenyans to assess her and decide whether they want her to be the president. Whoever feels they can offer themselves for leadership should do so. We are not ruling anyone out.”
Kamencu first became interested in politics at the University of Nairobi, where she ran to become the chairwoman of the student union. This was at a time when women only contested for the vice position, she says.
Kamencu, 21 at
the time, says that persuading her fellow students to elect her was a challenging task. She didn’t win the election, but the experience taught her a lot about Kenya’s politics.
“Campus politics are a true reflection of national politics,” she says. “They are tribal-based and money-driven.”
While still in school, she joined the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy-Kenya, a party that began in 1990 and sees transparency and accountability as key to good governance. She then became the leader of its youth league.
In 2007, at 23, Kamencu announced plans to run against Odinga, who was then also seeking the presidency. But she dropped out of the race before the elections.
But this time, the writer, whose novel “To Grasp at a Star” won two prestigious local awards in 2003 and 2006, plans to go all the way. She is running on the ticket of a different party, the Labour Party of Kenya, which was among the parties that formed the National Rainbow Coalition that brought Kibaki to power in 2002.
Kamencu says that if elected, she will prioritize people over politics.
“There’s a wind of change in Kenya right now, and I’m just a part of what is happening,” she says.
