My resilience paid off, says Beatrice Elachi on winning Dagoretti North seat
Dagoretti North MP Beatrice Elachi.
What you need to know:
- Elachi is one of the prominent politicians, having served in the political and Executive decision-making positions for over 25 years.
- She lost during the 2017 General Election to an ODM candidate.
Beatrice Elachi’s win in the Dagoretti North parliamentary race was not by sheer luck, and neither did it come on a silver platter.
Her triumph in one of the most hotly contested elections was a result of her hard work, consistency, and resilience in her political career.
Fondly known as “Mama Dago” by her constituents because of her calmness and motherly love; her win was celebrated by many people who felt she deserved it.
And this was for a reason. After losing in 2017, Elachi got down to work, reaching out to communities in her constituency and the larger Nairobi County. She journeyed with them in times of happiness and sorrow. But more importantly, she engaged in initiatives that transformed lives and boosted livelihoods. Residents were looking forward to her leadership.
“I was received with a lot of enthusiasm during the 2022 General Election because I was not meeting my constituents for the first time. I had engaged the electorate, especially women, in many strategic areas that were of concern to them. It is also these women who overwhelmingly supported me during the previous elections.”
Elachi is not new to the political space. She is one of the prominent politicians, having served in the political and Executive decision-making positions for over 25 years. Through the years, she has strategically used these platforms to build her political career to what it is today.
Her resume shows an impressive work record. She has worked for several women’s rights organisations, which include the National Council of Women of Kenya, the Collaborative Centre for Gender and Development, and the Women Political Alliance.
“I was mentored by Professor Wanjiku Kabira, who at that time, showed and argued for why women needed to be in leadership,” Elachi says. “At the time, there was a great push for women representation in political spaces; and I understood the need and importance of women being in these spaces.”
From awareness to participation
This awareness and the constant engagement with women leaders started having an effect on her as well. According to Elachi, her entry into politics began in 2005 during her time at the Women Political Alliance. At that time, she was instrumental in leading women’s groups to join the team that was advocating the review of the old constitution, to, among other things, create a space for women.
In 2007, she became part of the team that called for “Kibaki Tena”. This team believed the late President Mwai Kibaki deserved a second term.
Elachi and other politicians went around the country selling the Kibaki agenda. Meanwhile, she was getting deeply involved in the political space. For instance, she was assigned to train the women in parliament in understanding electoral violence. Years that followed after that election started transforming her political career in a deeper way.
“In 2010, I was picked by the late Yussuf Haji and Johnson Muthama to be part of the team tasked with repackaging Uhuru to become president.”
It Is during this time that “I went to the Alliance Party of Kenya, an affiliate of The National Alliance (TNA) and became the secretary general.” She would later be nominated as senator after the 2013 General Election. While serving in the Senate, she recorded a first by becoming the first woman to be elected the Majority Chief Whip, a position she held until 2017, when she decided to contest the Dagoretti North seat on a Jubilee Party ticket, whose primaries she won with a comfortable margin. Unfortunately, she lost during the 2017 General Election to an ODM candidate.
Even with such a loss, she managed to bounce back, with the Nairobi County Assembly electing her as its first woman speaker. No longer had she settled in the new position than her opponents engineered motions to remove her from office in 2018. Luckily, she was reinstated through a court order in October 2019. According to Elachi, her reinstatement bore fruit as she made major structural changes in the Public Service Board, which included addressing issues of nepotism in employment. However, in 2020, Elachi resigned, and opted to restrategise for the 2022 elections in Dagoretti North, whose seat she won on an ODM ticket.
Innovative strategies
How did she do it? Having campaigned before, Elachi said she possessed a good amount of knowledge on how to go about it. The first thing was mapping out the constituency and understanding its issues and needs.
She then embarked on a door-to-door campaign to popularise her candidature and manifesto that aligned with the issues affecting its three wards. She used the opportunity to target women who form the majority of the population. For her, night campaigns were effective as they did not involve many people tagging along.
Another major strategy was to reach out for the diaspora votes; these are voters whose homes are in Dagoretti North but live and work in other parts of the city. She combined these strategies with a multimedia strategy that involved telephone communication, WhatsApp platform, TikTok, Short Message Service (SMS) and radio and television shows to broadcast her plan to as many people as possible.
“This constituency has a mix of the rich, middle class and those from the urban slums. All of them had to be reached through different channels of communication.”
But one of the most instrumental strategies was when her party leader publicly endorsed her. This gave her overwhelming support. Her previous work as Chief Administrative Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service, Gender, Senior Citizens Affairs and Special Programmes, and networks improved her performance in the election. She acknowledges the support she got from UN Women through her partners in improving her visibility.
Lessons learnt
Elachi has learnt many lessons during her political journey, but a few stand out. One of them is the need to vie through a political party and not do so as an independent, which makes life harder for a woman politician. “Women should go for parties and not as independent candidates, especially at a constituency level. Competition is stiff, hence support can only come through a political party.”
Another lesson is to always keep promises. “Be yourself, don’t pretend, and let people know you for who you are.”
The good and the ugly
Still, it has not been rosy for her. She has experienced both good and ugly moments. One of her best moments was when she won, after attempting previously without success. “Many men wondered how a woman won the seat. But I appreciated all the meetings with the women because they added value to the campaign. I also found women to be genuine with their promises.”
Her worst moment was the propaganda and disinformation on social media about her and who she was as a person.
Looking into the future
Elachi notes that because the residents of her constituency are predominantly urban poor, she is focussing on programmes that make it easier for the disadvantaged children to access quality and decent education, in addition to empowering women economically to improve their livelihoods.
She is currently establishing a technical school that will empower young girls who have either given up hope in life or have dropped out of school.
