How Achani beat the odds to secure Kwale governorship
Kwale Governor Fatuma Achani speaks after she won the Kwale County gubernatorial race on August 12, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Besides visibility and the right party, her development track record played a significant role.
- She had performed well as deputy governor, having initiated many development projects that resonated with the community.
When Fatuma Achani announced she was going to vie for Kwale governor, many people did not give her a chance to succeed. They thought she would be trounced easily by seasoned politicians who declared their interest in the position.
Achani was not scared. She had performed well as deputy governor, having initiated many development projects that resonated with the community. She positioned herself strategically in one of the popular political parties.
Secondly, she enjoyed a lot of support from outgoing governor Salim Mvurya, who was her boss. But an obstacle almost denied her this powerful position: culture and patriarchy.
“There were a lot of cultural perceptions that as a woman, I was not best suited for the seat,” Achani says.
“Even after the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) political party had endorsed my candidature; I was about to be denied the party ticket because the local leadership was gunning up for a male candidate.”
Achani believes the public endorsement she got from her party’s presidential candidate, President William Ruto, silenced the clamouring for a male candidate. This paved the way for her to engage in well-organised and intense campaigns.
She eventually won the seat with a landslide on August 9, 2022, to become the first woman Muslim governor in Kenya. She believes that her success resulted from engaging party structures, religious leaders, and campaigning well and receiving support from everyone in the county: men, women, and the youth.
“The people in the county gave me overwhelming support due to my ideology. I respect the people and they respect me too. They saw a lot of hope and trust in me,” adds Achani, who previously worked with Fida-K as a programmes officer.
Her political journey started way back in 2013 when she was named as Kwale deputy governor candidate. “I served under Governor Salim Mvurya until his two terms came to an end and I strongly believe my commitment to serving the people endeared me to the electorate.”
Together with Mvurya, they were able to build a solid legacy of development. This was a major asset as she was the only other person better placed to further the development agenda they had started.
“By the time I announced my plans to vie for the seat, I knew I would win. This was because we had aggressively made inroads at the grassroots and within the community.”
Applying innovative strategies
Even with all this positive development, it was not going to be that easy for her. She had to fight to change the perception that women cannot be leaders. “I had to rebrand myself as a leader and started by mobilising the support of women, with whom we initiated many women’s groups to engage in table banking.”
By the time the campaigns for governorship began, she had enabled more than 3,000 women to be in table banking. She did this in combination with many other projects she initiated for women and young people.
With this impressive development record, her next attention was to plan a well-organised campaign. “It was tough but better. UDA leaders came down to campaign for me, which helped to boost my chances.”
Mvurya also provided her with immense support on the campaign trail. “It was tough, but I managed to defeat all other candidates, predominantly men.”
Further, the UN Women, through NCCK, convened meetings that brought together religious leaders drawn from the Muslim community and Christians.
“At that time, there were sheikhs who would specifically go to the mosques to give sermons against women leadership. However, through sensitisation to the importance of women leadership by UN Women and NCCK, this perception changed. The same religious leaders started endorsing my candidature, and, to date, have remained among my staunch supporters.”
This was augmented by the positive media coverage she received where she was able to talk about her agenda. This included profiling by African Woman and Child Features that saw her profile published in the Nation newspapers, the leading publication in Kenya and East and Central Africa. Such publication immensely enhanced her profile.
Besides visibility and the right party, her development track record played a significant role in getting her to win. During her 10-year term as a deputy governor, Achani participated in the implementation of many development projects.
“We had done a lot, including tackling issues of access to education, health, clean water, infrastructure and women empowerment. On education, we had started the elimu ni sasa initiative, sponsoring 4,000 students in national schools, with 3,000 students getting full sponsorship to pursue university education.”
She also empowered women, helping them set up village savings and loans associations.
“We started small but the number has grown to 6,000 groups, which are currently being supported by the county government. This was a simple-but-sure way to empower rural women. Any woman who was able to contribute something had access to a loan from among her peers.”
With the groups functioning well, she then organised forums where women trained women in how to form companies. “We now have several groups that have formed companies and are doing business with the county.”
She says the fact that she came from the Digo ethnic group was also an asset. “The county has two major tribes, namely the Digo and the Duruma. My predecessor came from the Duruma side and, therefore, it was time for the Digo to take up the leadership mantle.”
Her final strategy that helped to seal her victory was putting in place a parallel tallying centre and having observers in every polling centre to protect her votes.
Confronting challenges
While funds remain one of the barriers to the success of women seeking political leadership, for Achani, the greatest challenge she faced in her campaigns was gender discrimination. “When I announced I would vie for the gubernatorial seat, I had to contend with male chauvinism, cultural and religious obstacles.”
Achani also had to deal with competitors who maligned and spread malicious rumours about her character. “One day I went to social media and found my son trending with people ostensibly looking for his father. I was devastated because I could not believe that people were going to stoop too low for political reasons.”
She fought the propaganda and did not allow herself to be intimidated. “I woke up motivated and I had to show them that even if they bring me down psychotically, they cannot kill my zeal for the seat.”
Her opponents also used the mosques to propagate a narrative that a Muslim woman should not be allowed to seek leadership. They used sheikhs to spread the same messages but she looked for other sheikhs and church leaders to counter this narrative.
Learning journey
These challenges have provided her with great learning on how to navigate the political terrain. For the time she has been in politics, Achani has learnt that visibility remains key even as women propagate their political agenda.
“While it is important that we begin our campaigns early, we need to be available, visible and deliver on our election pledges to help boost our chances for election or re-election.”
She says that civil society organisations supporting women’s leadership need to come in early in an election cycle.
“We should not wait for the last minute. If we wait for the last minute, these women will have nothing to show, but if you give them support now, you will help increase their visibility and chances of winning.
“The women who are in leadership now are also supposed to set a good example. If I fail, I will have failed other women and made their ascendancy to political leadership difficult.”
For now, Achani is focused on delivering on her promises, especially in the areas of health and water, where she has initiated several projects.
“I want to make sure that everybody in Kwale can access clean water for drinking and irrigation. The county’s oncology centre is now ready for use. I am doing a second ICU in Kinango and a new maternity wing in Lunglunga.”
These are part of my promise to empower and improve the livelihoods of people of Kwale.
AWC Feature Service
