Business school to offer course on campaigns

Strathmore Business School has launched a programme in campaign management to target politicians wishing to contest in the forthcoming General Election.

The two-day course would cost you Sh325, 000 and is expected to start next month on 19th.

It involves teaching aspirants and their campaign team on strategy, planning, dealing with the media, fundraising, budgeting as well as using new technologies such as social networks.

Aspirants would also be trained on how to manage their time as well as prepare for public debates.

Last week, Media houses launched a presidential debate to be aired on all local stations in what would be a first one in Africa.

Programme Manager Patrick Ndungu told the Nation on Tuesday the course has been inspired by the growing democracy in Kenya and the fact that more Kenyans are becoming knowledgeable enough to examine candidates’ position on issues that affect Kenyans.

“Kenya is rapidly adopting the political style of the West and more people have begun analysing what candidates are saying. This course is aimed at fostering professionalism in politics,” he said.

An announcement ran in local dailies stated that the complexity of next year’s elections in Kenya, in which voters would be required to elect six levels of contestants from the county representative to the president, calls for candidates to develop proper plans.

“Campaign development is now marked by analysing the context and designing a strategy, two factors that have a decisive impact on election and success,” said the announcement.

Voters, for instance, are supposed to elect in 4,500 county representatives. Considering the number of political parties in Kenya, we are likely to have just about 12,000 contestants vying for these seats.

Prof Steven Jarding, a lecturer in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in the US would conduct the training together with two other scholars from the Institute of Higher Business Studies (IESE) in Spain, where this course has been conducted before.

Mr Ndungu said the School plans to introduce campaign training around the continent in future but that would depend on the success of the course next month.