Campaigning in a County Where Your Party Is Weak

Where your party is weak, campaign on your own name and record. Work out exactly how many votes the party brand still brings, recruit organisers who come from the place, and put an agent in every polling station anyway. Kenya's 2026 by-elections showed that a party can lose badly and still hold a real floor of voters to build on.

What the 2026 by-elections showed

Two contests in 2026 put a party on the wrong side of its region:

DCP lost Emurua Dikirr in a UDA heartland but took more than a third of the votes cast for the top two. UDA was beaten heavily in Ol Kalou and still found 5,450 voters. Neither figure wins a seat. What each gives a campaign is a starting point, and once you know it you can plan how far you have to climb. Our by-election review covers both in detail.

Count before you plan

Take the last election's results for your party in the county, ward by ward and station by station, and add any by-election figures. Then ask your own supporters, quietly, how many of their neighbours would vote for the party and how many would vote for you. The difference is your personal vote, and in a hostile county it is usually the part you can grow.

Put your own name first

In a county that has turned on your party, much of the resistance is to the label. So your name, your face and your local story go at the front. The party symbol will be on the ballot paper whatever you do, and trying to hide it fools nobody. Posters, conversations and speeches can still be about the ward and the county, with the national leader kept in the background.

Borrow a partner's standing

A party that is weak in one place often has a coalition partner that is strong there. The Wiper Patriotic Front has worked on Mt Kenya outreach, and Kalonzo Musyoka hosted a Kirinyaga delegation on 5 September 2026. DCP's leader, Rigathi Gachagua (Mathira), campaigned in the Rift Valley in August. A partner's local figure standing beside you counts for more than your own party's national name.

Sometimes a weak party does not field anyone. Senate Speaker Amason Kingi said on 27 August 2026 that UDA would not field a Kilifi governor candidate and would back ODM's Gideon Mung'aro (Governor, Kilifi). Before you spend money on a seat, check whether it is being traded.

Recruit from inside

An organiser sent in from the party's stronghold is a stranger, and voters hear the accent before they hear the message. Ward coordinators should live in the ward, even if they are new to politics. Our guide to working a ward you have never worked sets out how.

Agents where you expect to lose

Nobody from your side is watching the results forms in your rival's strongest stations, and that is exactly why you need people there. Recruit an agent for every stream. A vote you win in those stations still counts towards a county-wide or presidential total, and an agent's signature on a Form 34A or 37A is what protects it.

Argue about the county

Talk about the county budget, the hospital and the roads. In September 2026 county issues were live across Kenya. In Machakos, Wavinya Ndeti (Governor, Machakos) refused to sign the county budget on 1 September over Sh853.96 million in cuts by MCAs, The Star reported. Voters will judge a candidate who knows the county's figures on those figures.

Mistakes to avoid

Attacking the region's own leaders to prove loyalty to your party's national figures tends to backfire. So does bussing in supporters from elsewhere for a photograph. And do not borrow a local party's symbol for posters while filing on another: the ballot paper will show your real party, and voters remember that kind of trick.

For the groundwork that comes before any of this, see how to research a county before you campaign in it.