In Kenya, we hand millions of taxpayers’ shillings every year to political parties through the Political Parties Fund, yet we receive in return little more than ethnic mobilisation machines, personality cults and election-time chaos.
The absence of genuine political education within these publicly subsidised entities is a national scandal. While parties gorge on public resources, they remain intellectually bankrupt, ideologically hollow and organisationally primitive. This must end, now.
The Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) dutifully processes registrations, doles out funds and occasionally deregisters the most egregious offenders. Its mandate, however, stops short of demanding that parties earning public money actually educate their members and leaders.
The result is parties that can barely articulate coherent policy positions. Internal democracy is a slogan, not a practice. Leadership pipelines are non-existent. New members are recruited as registration fodder, not as informed participants in our sovereign republic.
The Political Parties Fund, drawn from the national revenue, exists to strengthen multiparty democracy, not to bankroll patronage networks. Yet year after year, parties spend these resources on campaigns, luxuries and ghost structures while their members remain politically illiterate.
We fund organisations that treat politics as a zero-sum ethnic lottery rather than a contest of ideas, governance competence and long-term national vision. The lethargy is breathtaking.
Political education is the missing foundation of Kenyan democracy. It differs sharply from basic civic education. Civic education teaches citizens how government works. Political education equips party members and leaders with the tools to shape that government. It comprises policy analysis, ideological clarity, internal democratic processes, ethical leadership, coalition management, evidence-based manifesto development and strategic thinking. Without it, parties remain vehicles for capturing state resources rather than vehicles for transforming society.
The benefits are transformative and urgent. Well-educated parties would produce better candidates; leaders who understand public finance, devolution, climate resilience, industrial policy and social justice instead of relying on handouts and tribal arithmetic.
Internal party democracy would reduce the endless court battles and defections that disgrace our elections. Ideological grounding would foster genuine policy competition, moving Kenya beyond personality and ethnicity toward issue-based politics. Public funds would finally yield returns, including more accountable governance and a deeper democratic culture.
The urgency cannot be overstated. With the 2027 general election approaching and without deliberate political schooling, we will once again witness the same cycle of flamboyant manifestos that gather dust, primaries marred by violence and rigging, coalitions formed on opportunistic arithmetic rather than shared vision, and a disillusioned electorate choosing between flawed options.
Young Kenyans, who form the majority, deserve parties that mentor them in serious politics rather than exploiting their energy for rallies and online trolling. A more proactive regulatory framework is essential. The ORPP should enforce minimum standards for political education as a condition for accessing public funds.
Collaboration with neutral, competent institutions such as the Kenya School of Government (KSG) for leadership modules, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) for quality content, and accredited providers would ensure rigour and neutrality. Parties must submit annual education plans, report on implementation and subject themselves to audit, not as bureaucratic tick-boxes, but as genuine accountability measures. Public funding must buy public value.
Cynics will cite interference or infringement on party autonomy. That would be, characteristically, a quantum leap in logic. Autonomy does not mean licence to waste taxpayers’ money while undermining the very democracy parties claim to serve. Entities that benefit from public resources must meet public standards.
Countries that have strengthened party systems through structured political education, from successful social democracies to developmental states, showcase the rewards in stable institutions, better policy continuity and higher public trust.
Kenyan political parties have enjoyed a long, taxpayer-funded holiday from seriousness. The time for remedial political education is overdue. Our democracy cannot mature on empty slogans and ethnic headcounts. Demand better. Insist that public money funds public purpose. Until parties invest in the minds of their members as aggressively as they chase state power, Kenya will remain rich in politicians but desperately poor in political leadership.
The choice is clear, Kenya can continue subsidising mediocrity, or finally build parties worthy of the Sovereign Republic. The latter requires urgency, courage and unapologetic enforcement.
Social impact adviser, social consciousness theorist, trainer and speaker, agronomist consultant for golf courses and sportsfields and author of 'The Gigantomachy of Samaismela' and 'The Trouble with Kenya: McKenzian Blueprint'
