Kenya Programme 2018 1. Political update 2018 2017 was an election year in Kenya with elections for six different levels of elected positions; presidential, national assembly, women’s representatives, senate, gubernatorial, and provincial assembly. Elections were highly contested in a polarized environment between the ruling coalition which recently merged into a single political party (Jubilee party) and the National Super Alliance (NASA), a coalition of eight political parties. 

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has been under intense scrutiny, especially from the opposition who questioned the commissioners’ partisanship and capacity to lead the electoral process. This culminated in the high profile annulment of the presidential elections by the Kenyan Supreme Court. This decision has been hailed around the world as an unprecedented victory for democracy and an attest to the separation of power in Kenya. The decision incited a rerun between incumbent Jubilee candidate Kenyatta and his challenger Odinga. At the time of writing the rerun has not taken place yet, they are scheduled for October 26th. Although the court decision reflects the institutional strength of democracy in Kenya it has also deepened the distrust between the two opposing sides and trust in the IEBC has hit rock bottom. 2018 will need interventions on reconciliation between the two sides of the political divide and the start of a roadmap towards increased trust in the IEBC for the next general elections in 2021. 

Although the different levels of elections inevitably provide a mixed picture of the political landscape, on a meta level the results can be interpreted as a victory for the Jubilee party with a majority in both the National Assembly and the Senate and victories in territories that were previously aligned with the parties that are part of NASA. The new political landscape with one party being so dominant in the national parliaments asks for an in depth political analysis to see how CMD-K as a dialogue platform can remain relevant for a dominant party. 

Although there is still a huge gender gap in the elected positions in Kenya there was a major breakthrough in the recent elections with three women elected in governor positions, three women senators and 22 female MPs. Despite this victory for gender equality in politics, the political parties have signalled entrenched violence against female candidates. Violence against women in politics is a threshold keeping other women from running for office. CMD-K will come to a road map towards the next general elections of how to fight violence against women and strengthen mechanisms to battle violence against women. 

2. Problem Analysis & Theory of Change Update 
A thorough political economy analysis (PEA) is planned for the beginning of November where the new political landscape after the general elections will be analysed. The PEA will involve several experts that are not affiliated to CMD to ensure that new perspectives are taken along. The final day of the PEA will be used to discuss programmatic implications and update for the SP ToC. 

A brief update is provided below per intervention level:

System
Political parties are organized along ethnic lines and are frequently used as a vehicle to power for politicians instead of presenting policy alternatives. The power division coming from the previous election shows two major blocks across from each other.

Actor
Political parties have little individual capacity for lobby and advocacy, and where the largest parties have capacity this is mostly geared directly to the individual direction of its leader(s). The party landscape is very fragmented and only a few parties survive their leaders, as the tendency is for secession and merger of parties as vehicles for individual leaders. As a result, manifestos are interchangeable and often there is no clear ideology or basic adhering principle to discern one party from another.

Culture
Kenyan media are rated as free but are frequently on a confrontational discourse. Recently, with the surge in social-media use, there have been frequent reports of fake news insinuating politicians and political candidates in smear campaigns. 

The space for civil society has been decreasing steadily in the past years with an increasingly repressive NGO Coordination Board. This culminated in the deregistration by the Board of two civil society organizations that contested the elections process. 

The relationship between media, civil society, and politicians needs to improve for a vibrant environment for lobby and advocacy in Kenya. 

Gender
Although the two-third gender is firmly entrenched in the constitution this has not translated into a more equal political participation for women in politics. Steps have been made with three female governors and an increase in female representation in both senate and national assembly. Violence against women is a major hurdle for more women from running for political office. 

3. Programme outlook 
System: Formulation of, proposing to, and approval of jointly formulated policies in parliament securing civil and political rights

Intermediate outcome: Common issues emerging from the interparty dialogue are presented to relevant parliamentary committees

Interventions:
1. Facilitate broad cross-party dialogue on priority issues: Reconciliation after the election and gathering lessons learnt and determine a path to the next elections. 
After the turbulent electoral year 2017 it is necessary to look back at the lessons learned of the past elections. The dialogue sessions will be centred around first of all reconciliation between the parties. Once that has happened gather some of the lessons learned and start determining a path towards the next elections. Questions that come up will be what needs to change for elections to run smoothly in Kenya. 

2. Facilitate broad cross-party dialogue on priority issues: Discussing the institutional setup of the dialogue platform. 
Looking at the institutional setup of CMD it can be seen that many political parties are represented in the organization, all on an equal basis, while Kenyan politics is currently dominated by two blocks. On one side of the divide the opposition coalition NASA and the Jubilee party, which has a majority in both Senate and National Assembly. CMD on the other hand is governed by around 30 political parties of which the majority do not have significant political influence. These dialogue session will focus on coming up with an institutional setup of CMD which will better reflect political reality. 

3. Facilitate broad cross-party dialogue on priority issues: to be determined

Intermediate indicators:
vi. # of agreements reached (reform agendas / policies / legal amendments)


Actor:
- Political actors that voice and monitor citizens interests
- Improved capability of CMD for bringing political parties together in the dialogue platform

Intermediate outcome: 
- Political parties propose alternative policy proposals and ideas that are informed by their constituencies 
- Political parties have more capacity to jointly advocate for relevant development issues

Interventions:
4. Organise Round-tables and support for political parties to formulate policy recommendations: Interparty policy formulation workshop/retreat
Organize a retreat with the party members of CMD to have a capacity-building workshop on formulating policy and to harvest important themes to organize roundtables together with experts and civil society on. 

5. Organise Round-tables and support for political parties to formulate policy recommendations: Thematic round table
Round table with civil society and experts to inform parties’ policies. Exact theme to be determined during workshop/retreat. 

6. Provide direct policy development support based on strategic planning reports: Take stock of and update the strategic planning of the political parties
Take stock of the available strategic plans of the CMD member political parties. Where do we stand with implementation? Which ones need to be updated? Which parties need to develop strategic plans? Based on that provide with a strategic planning training if necessary. 


7. Support dialogue platform secretariat to facilitate and host interparty dialogue as means for joint lobby and advocacy: fundraising training for secretariat
Based on the updated BART executed in 2016, fundraising was identified as one of the weak points of CMD. Therefore organize a fundraising training for the programme staff. 

Intermediate indicators
- x. # of representatives (male/female) of political actors who have been trained in strategy development, programmatic and/or policy development skills with a focus on developing a distinctive profile 
- xi. # of strategy development, programmatic/policy development training activities with a focus on developing a distinctive profile, that have included a gender focus"
- xiv. % execution of capacity development plans

Culture: Interest in consulting, collaborating, harmonizing, being responsive and a sense of trust and mutual understanding among and between political and civic actors. 

Intermediate outcomes: 
- Relations between political actors, both on national and county levels are improved
- Better linkages, knowledge/expertise sharing between political actors and civil society and the wider public
- Relations between media and political actors improved

Interventions: 
8. Organise consultation meetings where thematic CSO’s relevant for the committee and party leadership interact: Organise meeting on civic space in Kenya
One of the pertinent issues in Kenya is the space of civil society to operate. Organize a round table meeting with civil society and political party leadership to exchange views on the importance of space for civil society to lobby and advocate or their issues. 

9. Organise outreach campaign for parliamentary select committee and political party representatives: Organize a meeting in several counties on thematic issue
Select a pertinent issue and organize a meeting in several counties for a parliamentary committee and political party leadership to exchange with citizens and local civil society. 

10. Facilitate meet the press forums: Quarterly forum where CMD parties present their dialogue work to the press
Organize quarterly meetings where the press is invited to engage with the political parties represented in CMD. 

Intermediate indicators:
[to be determined]

Gender: political processes and policymaking includes the voice of women and minority groups and the gender equality agenda receives wider support in and out of parliament. Political actors are defined as the combined main target group of the Strategic Partnership: - (representatives of) political parties - politicians - (Members of) Parliament and its Committees - Other elected representatives at local levels. NIMD will primarily focus on political parties.