Under the project Women and Governance: Building the Capacity of Murang’a County Assembly Women Aspirants to vie for the 2017 General Elections, CEEC with support from GIZ/CPS carried out a five days’ training of 18 women from Murang’a County aspiring to become Members of County Assembly in 2017. The women were drawn from six Sub Counties namely, Gatanga, Kandara, Kangema, Mathioya, Maragua and Kiharu. The training was held from the 30th of October 2016 to the 4th of November 2016 at Nokras Hotel, Murang’a and it aimed at strengthening the aspirants’ capacity to vie for the 2017 general elections.
Many women are knocked out of elections due to lack of understanding of the electoral process, lack of resources and skills. The training therefore covered topics like party and IEBC nominations, electoral timelines, preparation of personal manifestos, personal branding, resource mobilization, campaign management and personal presentation. It was anchored within a gender framework to help the aspirants not only understand the engendered nature of the challenges they face but also how to deal with them. Fortunately, the Murang’a County Member of Parliament popularly known as the Woman Representative came to the training and shared the challenges she has faced and continues to face as well as practical ways in which she deals with these challenges.
To give them a feel of what to expect if they won, the trainees were taken on a learning tour of Murang’a County Assembly. They attended a session and were later given a talk on how business is conducted in the house. This helped demystify the County Assembly which some of them were entering for the first time. At the end of the training, the women had a better understanding of the electoral process as well as enhanced skills on how to run their campaigns.