How to set up a campaign office in Kenya

In short: Set up a campaign office where your coordinators can reach it easily and where the candidate can be seen, staff it with a small core team — manager, office coordinator, treasurer and data lead — and give it clear routines: a morning briefing, one place for records, written approval for every expense and a locked process for anything involving personal data or money.

Do you need a physical office?

A ward campaign can run from a candidate’s home and a phone for a while. But once volunteers, visitors and money start flowing, an office gives the campaign three things it cannot get otherwise: a place to meet coordinators, a visible presence in the community, and a controlled place to keep records and materials.

Larger campaigns usually have one headquarters and smaller satellite offices — a desk in each constituency or even each ward — that report to it.

Choosing the location

• Accessible: on a matatu route, easy to find, with safe access in the evening.
• Visible: on a street where supporters pass, with space for signage.
• Central to your electoral area, not just convenient for the candidate.
• Secure: a lockable room for records, equipment and merchandise.
• Reliable power and mobile signal; consider a backup for power.
• Space for meetings of your coordinators and for volunteers to work.

Get the lease or permission in writing, and agree in advance what happens after the election.

The core team

Titles vary, but a working campaign office needs someone responsible for each of these:

• Campaign manager: runs the campaign and chairs the daily briefing.
• Office coordinator: visitors, schedules, logistics and keeping the office running.
• Treasurer or finance officer: budgets, approvals and records of every shilling.
• Data and field lead: contact lists, volunteer records and field reports.
• Communications lead: messages, social media and media contacts.

In a small campaign one person holds several of these roles. What matters is that every responsibility has a named owner.

Routines that make the office work

• A short morning briefing: yesterday’s results, today’s priorities, who is where.
• A visitor book and a clear rule on who can see the candidate and when.
• One system for contacts, volunteers and field reports — not copies on everyone’s laptop.
• Written requests and approvals for every expense, even small ones.
• A weekly review of the plan against real activity by ward.
• A stock register for merchandise and materials: what came in, what went out, to whom.

Equipment checklist

• Laptops or desktops for the manager, treasurer and data lead.
• Smartphones for coordinators, with enough data bundles to send reports.
• Reliable internet and a power backup.
• A printer for forms, lists and appointment letters.
• A large wall map of your wards and polling stations.
• Lockable storage for documents, cash-handling records and merchandise.
• A notice board with the week’s schedule and targets.

Protecting records and personal data

A campaign office holds personal data about supporters, volunteers and agents. Kenya’s Data Protection Act, 2019 applies to that data. Treat it with care from the first day:

• Keep contact lists in one controlled system, not in loose spreadsheets and WhatsApp exports.
• Give each person access only to what they need — a ward coordinator sees their ward.
• Record where each contact came from and whether they agreed to receive messages.
• Do not leave printed lists on desks or in vehicles.
• When someone leaves the campaign, remove their access the same day.

Money in the office

• Keep as little cash in the office as possible; prefer M-PESA and bank transfers with records.
• Two people involved in every payment: one requests, one approves.
• Receipts or confirmation messages for every payment, filed against the budget line.
• A weekly finance summary for the candidate and manager.

Connecting ward offices to HQ

Satellite offices fail when they become independent kingdoms. Give every ward and constituency office the same routines, the same reporting format and access to the same system as HQ, scoped to their area. HQ should be able to see each office’s activity without phoning it.

Frequently asked questions

When should a campaign open its office?

When you start recruiting coordinators and volunteers in earnest. Opening too late means the first months of recruitment happen in homes and cafés, with records scattered across phones.

Do I need an office in every ward?

Not necessarily. Many campaigns use a headquarters plus a contact point in each ward — a coordinator’s shop or home — that follows the same routines and reporting.

What records should a campaign office keep?

Contacts and volunteers with their consent, field reports, the schedule, every financial request and approval, the merchandise stock register and the polling-agent list.