Key political spouses roll up their sleeves for campaigns

Wives of the leading presidential hopefuls are rolling up their sleeves and joining the vote-hunt to ensure their husbands reside at State House in 2022.

Whether conducting fundraisers to aid a group of women or youths, holding strategy meetings behind the scenes, or even campaigning for their spouses at rallies, these women are slowly shaping the campaigns as the August polls draw closer.

Leading this team are Rachel Ruto and Ida Odinga, the wives of Deputy President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga respectively. They have intensified their campaigns and involvement in politics in the hope of winning additional votes for their spouses.

The two have been crisscrossing the country, either attending rallies, or mobilising groups of women and youths through fundraisers.

Ms Ruto has been in at least two counties, drumming up support for DP Ruto, with the latest ones being Nakuru and Uasin Gishu, where she held fundraisers for a group of women under the Joywo umbrella body, before addressing a roadside rally.

Optics

Ms Odinga has also been on the campaign trail, sometimes even accompanying the ODM leader to functions and rallies.

“What they are doing is what I call optics in politics. Having your spouse support your candidature for any seat is itself an endorsement, which any politician would long for,” said Mr Frank Wanjala, the chief executive officer of the Centre for Multi-Party Democracy.

In Nakuru, Ms Ruto appealed to voters to support Dr Ruto’s bottom-up economic model, terming it the only solution to the country’s growing misfortunes. She had before the rally presided over a fundraiser to aid a number of women’s groups in Nakuru and Uasin Gishu.

Ms Ruto has also been participating in in peace and prayer rallies.

“Glad to interact with residents and women at Keringet, Nakuru County, accompanied by Lisa Chelule (Nakuru County) and Joseph Tanui (Kuresoi South). Acknowledged greetings from residents of Keringet, Kuresoi South, Nakuru County,” she tweeted after a rally in Nakuru.

Ms Ruto told the Nation that her activities are focused on supporting women to become financially independent.

“Mama Rachel Ruto is passionate about empowering women and the vulnerable in society through the Mama Doing Good organisation. She has continued to work with women at the grassroots to ensure we have an equitable society where every person lives a happy, fulfilled and transformed life.

“In the wake of the pandemic where women have been disproportionately affected, it is paramount that we do all that we can to build resilience,” she said through her spokesperson, Michael Gitonga.

Ms Odinga has also been leading campaigns of her own, including her recent re-launch of a campaign platform dubbed Sibanduki, an offshoot of the Azimio la Umoja movement through which she hopes to rally the youth, women and professionals behind Mr Odinga.

She said her campaigns were aimed at showing voters, especially women and the youth, the right leadership.

“In Sibanduki, we are engaging Kenyans on the power of voting rights and peaceful campaigns for harmonious co-existence,” Mama Ida Odinga Trust Fund, which runs her campaigns, told the Nation.

And besides her recent campaigns, she has also in the past been involved in campaigns that sometimes saw her pay the ultimate political price, like when she was fired from her teaching job at the Kenya High School by former President Daniel Arap Moi for supporting the activities of Mr Odinga, who was advocating multi-partyism.

But Ms Odinga and Ms Ruto are not the only ones. Tessie Mudavadi, the wife of Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi, has also been at the forefront of marketing her husband, including at the Bomas of Kenya last month, where she endorsed his presidential bid.

Mr Mudavadi has linked his success in politics to his wife, whom he says has been an important pillar in helping him build his family and political career.

“She (Tessie) has been a good mother to my children and where I have been absent because of my political career, she has filled the gap,” he said in a previous interview.

High stakes

Prof Herman Manyora of the University of Nairobi says the heightened activities by the women and others in the campaigns, is because of the high stakes involved in the upcoming elections.

“Spouses have, in one way or the other, been involved in politics. If you take the case of western nations like the US, they endorse their significant other and even deliver speeches. But I believe that in our case, 2022 is such a high-stakes politics, especially for the big two, and that is why you see their wives getting more involved in campaigns unlike before,” he said.

Prof X.N Iraki of the University of Nairobi believes the implications and the results of the campaigns could be two-fold.

“Your spouse can attract votes depending on how the public perceive her. Portraying yourself as a family man can be an asset too. But I doubt if voters will pay much attention to that. Spouses could be used to attract female voters too. We could be trying to Americanise our politics, but politics is always local,” he said.

Building trust

For Mr Wanjala, the success or failure of such campaigns also depends on the strategy employed by each candidate.

“Your wife, like in the case of Dr Ruto and Mr Odinga, is someone who spends a majority of their time with you, and know you better than anyone else, at least in the eyes of the public. And so for them to support you, and even campaign for you publicly, that means a lot, especially in convincing part of the crowd and the voters that you can be trusted,” Mr Wanjala said.

But these campaigns have sometimes proved problematic to the hopefuls as there are instances where some of their utterances have become a talking point and a political fodder for their opponents.

Take the case of Ms Odinga, who had to apologise last month over her remarks calling for the regulation of mushrooming churches whose doctrines were questionable.

The statement, which she later withdrew, became a talking point for Dr Ruto’s supporters and a section of religious leaders, who accused her of an attempt to stifle the freedom of religion.

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