UN Women in collaboration with the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) held a workshop towards the validation of the Political Parties Leadership Training Source Book which will be used by County Election Coordinators and Monitors to train political parties’ officials at the county level. The workshop which was done in the framework of SEPK, brought together the source book authors and 17 sample County Election Coordinators and Monitors and UN Women staff, took place at the Maanzoni Lodge, Machakos County, from 12-16 September 2016.

Participants during the validation workshop. (Photo by UN Women/Sharon Macharia)

The Political Leadership training source book emphasizes the need for compliance with the laws governing political parties in Kenya. It seeks to train political parties to understand their role in the democratization process; comply with integrity requirements; resolve inter and intra-part disputes and above all promote and uphold national unity. Political Parties will also be empowered to carryout issue-based campaigns as ahead of the General Elections.

The Republic of Kenya is a multi-party democracy where every citizen is free to make political choices by vying for a political position, campaigning for a political party, or electing political leaders as guaranteed in the Constitution. It is imperative that the political arena has men and women who have the technical and leadership competence required. It is in this context that the Office of Registrar of Political Parties in collaboration with Kenya School of Law and Intellectual Resources Centre developed a Political Parties Leadership Curriculum to train political parties on compliance with the law in preparation for credible, peaceful, free and fair 2017 General Elections. The curriculum was derived from the lessons learnt from 2013 General Elections, the Constitution, Political Parties Act, 2011, Elections Act, 2011 among others. Further, UN Women provided the technical support to ensure that curriculum was gender mainstreamed.

During the month of April and June 2016, UN Women under the Leadership and Participation Program in collaboration with the ORPP and IEBC, supported the training sessions that were geared towards building the capacity of political parties’ officials (Chairpersons, women leaders, youth and PWDs) and County Election Coordinators and Monitors (ORPP and IEBC) on political leadership, ahead of the 2017 General Elections. The County Election Coordinators and Monitors are in turn expected to cascade the training to political parties’ officials at the county level, in preparations for the 2017 General Elections.

Authors from the workshop from the left: (Mr. Ouma from Kenya School of Law and Prof. Catherine Ndungo) (Photo by UN Women/Sharon 

During the workshop different authors i.e. Prof. Catherine Ndungo, Brenda kiberenge, Dr. Kyalo Mbobu among other presented on their different papers which they later noted down the comments and inputs from the sample County Election Coordinators and Monitors.

County Elections Coordinators and Monitors during group work and presentation. (Photo by UN Women/Sharon Macharia)

During the workshop the sample County Elections Coordinators and Monitors were tasked to discuss in groups the various topics in the book and come up with one which they would present to the authors to show their skills in training. From the presentations the authors gave comments e.g. the presenters needed to master the paper before training to ensure free flow of thoughts, they needed to engage their audience more with questions to ensure they are alert, they needed to build on their confidence and also ensure they incorporate technology i.e. PowerPoint presentations in their training methods.

The workshop ended with a few way forward points;

• Post workshop debriefing meeting shall be held at the office of the Registrar of Political Parties on 20th September 2016 to review outcomes of the validation workshop and map out key deliverables that will lead to final collation and eventual publication of the Source Book.

• The source book which will be availed to the 94 County Election Coordinators and Monitors by 30th September 2016.
• Trainings of political parties’ officials at the county level will commence in October 2016. The trainings shall be held jointly by the ORPP county monitors and the IEBC county election coordinators so as to improve coordination and leverage from resources.