The ‘milk of life’ and tough maths a woman must do to win Nairobi governorship
Margaret Kagori, who served as the Nairobi County coordinator for Warembo na Uhuruto in 2017, during the interview in Buruburu on September 21, 2026. She mobilised women and coordinated the group’s activities across the capital.
What you need to know:
- High campaign costs and informal power structures create additional hurdles for women seeking elective office in Nairobi.
- Women campaigners say money, party backing and mobilisation can determine who gets heard in politics.
Margaret Kagori knows what it takes to campaign for the Nairobi governorship. For a woman navigating the capital’s political terrain, she says, triumph means surviving a campaign in which money, mobilisation and influence often determine who gets heard.
Nairobi has 17 constituencies and 85 electoral wards; more than any other county in Kenya. Its population stood at 4,397,073 in the 2019 census and was projected by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics to reach 4,906,355 by 2025.
Deep pockets
Campaigning across such a vast political landscape requires deep pockets. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) caps campaign spending for gubernatorial, senatorial and County Woman Member of the National Assembly candidates in Nairobi at Sh181,312,885, based on the 2019 population figures.
Margaret Kagori, who served as the Nairobi County coordinator for Warembo na Uhuruto in 2017, during an interview in Buruburu on Monday, September 21, 2026.
The ceiling covers venues, publicity materials, advertising, campaign staff and transport, as well as communication, nomination fees, security, accommodation and administrative costs. But the campaign trail extends beyond the people who will eventually cast a ballot.
In 2022, Nairobi had 2,415,310 registered voters, according to the IEBC. Women accounted for 46 per cent of registered voters in the county, compared with 54 per cent men. Nationally, women made up 49.12 per cent of registered voters. For Margaret, however, those figures tell only part of the story.
'Milk of life'
Campaigning means reaching communities across the city, whether or not everyone in the crowd is registered to vote. And that, she says, is where money becomes the “milk of life”.
“Even if you were to do door-to-door campaigns to make the campaigns low cost, who will pay for your merchandise because you must brand people?” she says.
Candidates, she says, have to reach different groups, including those of women, young people, the business community, and the church. “There is no way you can make people stop what they were doing to earn a living in this Nairobi to come to listen to you and you just tell them, ‘Thank you for coming,’ how now?’” she says.
Margaret Kagori, who served as the Nairobi County coordinator for Warembo na Uhuruto in 2017, during an interview in Buruburu on Monday, September 21, 2026.
Another campaigner who has worked for a gubernatorial candidate in Nairobi, and who asked not to be named because of her political interests, says the costs extend even to church meetings.
Churches, she says, have increasingly turned their halls into income-generating spaces by hiring them out for political gatherings. “I once campaigned for a woman, and I almost got beaten up by people because I mobilised them and the woman didn’t give any money to give them and they assumed I had taken all of it,” she says.
“So, I can’t campaign for a woman unless she has the money. For all the men I have campaigned for, they know the game. They always have the money.”
Informal power structures
She says the woman candidate too has to navigate informal power structures on the ground. “You know these people we are calling goons; those are not goons. Those are security personnel on the ground. You have to pay them for them to give you the permission to campaign,” she says.
“It doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman, you have to ‘cheza kama wao - appease them’. They don’t understand the language of gender. They only understand the language of who gives more,” she says.
And the demands do not end when the campaign rallies are over. “You can campaign for 24 hours and people will love you, but still lose on election day. Why?” she asks.
Margaret Kagori, who served as the Nairobi County coordinator for Warembo na Uhuruto in 2017, during an interview in Buruburu on Monday, September 21, 2026.
“The smarter politicians I have worked with in Nairobi know that election day is when things can change. You can give someone Sh500 or Sh1,000, and they will vote for you. Life is very hard in Nairobi and, for some people, that money may be what they earn in a week. So voting for you becomes a way of thanking you for helping them.”
Then there are the polling agents.
“You get the money to hire polling agents, but they too can change hands if a competitor offers them more money. It is a cunning game that can give you a heart attack if you are not prepared for these surprises, because the way things happen sometimes looks like magic.”
'Nairobi is masculine'
For women seeking the elective office, the barriers can begin even before the campaign starts.
A governance consultant who has trained women seeking elective office, and who asked not to be named to protect future opportunities, says securing the backing of a popular political party in Nairobi can itself be a struggle.
“From my experience, when a party leader or a party gives its blessing to a candidate in an area where it is popular, it is as good as winning,” she says.
“But these popular political parties are owned by men, and it is men who decide who gets what. For such a party to settle for a woman in Nairobi is what I look forward to seeing.”
She says she has sat in meetings with women from political parties who recount hearing their male colleagues say things such as: “Nairobi is masculine, and so we need a man to lead it,” or, “Nairobi isn’t for women; they can try elsewhere.”
“When they protest, they are ganged up on and shut down. So, having a party that will stand against that kind of thinking is something that I really look forward to.”
