Kenya’s elections have become elaborate exercises in choosing people to whom the country will entrust extraordinary responsibility. Campaign stages are erected, convoys assembled, manifestos printed and rallies filled with music, speeches and promises. Candidates move from ward to ward, constituency to constituency and county to county asking citizens for the one thing that gives political office its power: their vote. Yet beneath the noise of every campaign lies a question that rarely receives the attention it deserves. Before a Kenyan asks to represent a ward, constituency, county or the entire nation, what should that person be required to know?
The question becomes particularly important because elected office is not simply about winning an election. Once the crowds disappear and the campaign posters come down, the elected politician enters a system of budgets, laws, institutions, contracts, policies and competing public interests. An MCA may be expected to scrutinise county spending and participate in legislation. A Member of Parliament helps make national laws and scrutinises government expenditure. A Senator deals with questions affecting counties and national revenue. A governor oversees an entire county administration. A President directs the national government and makes decisions with consequences for millions of people. These are radically different offices, but they share one characteristic: they require people capable of understanding complex information and making consequential decisions.
That is why Kenya should seriously consider making a university degree, or a clearly defined equivalent higher-education qualification, a minimum requirement for every elective position, from Member of County Assembly to President.
The proposition will inevitably provoke resistance. Kenya is a democracy, and the ballot should not become the preserve of an educated elite. A degree does not make a person honest, intelligent or wise, and Kenya has produced educated leaders whose records have been deeply disappointing. There are also ordinary Kenyans without university degrees who possess extraordinary common sense, leadership ability and commitment to their communities. Those realities should not be ignored. But they do not answer the central question. The issue is not whether a degree creates a good leader. It does not. The issue is whether the complexity of modern government has reached a point where some minimum level of formal education should be expected from anyone seeking the authority to govern.
The Leadership Ladder Starts at the Ward
The debate often becomes emotionally charged when it reaches the MCA because the office is perceived as the most accessible form of political representation. But accessibility should not be confused with simplicity. An MCA operates within a county legislative institution and participates in decisions that influence how public money is allocated and how county services are delivered. Behind the apparently ordinary business of a county assembly are complicated questions about budgets, legislation, procurement, healthcare, infrastructure, revenue and oversight.
Imagine an MCA examining a county budget that runs into billions of shillings. The document contains figures, projections, programmes and allocations. The MCA is expected to question whether those allocations make sense and whether public resources are being used properly. That responsibility does not require the MCA to be an economist or an accountant, but it does require the ability to understand information, identify inconsistencies and ask informed questions.
The same principle becomes even more important as one moves from the county assembly into the National Assembly. An MP is not merely a representative who speaks about local roads, bursaries or community projects. Parliament makes laws, approves national expenditure and exercises oversight over the Executive. MPs regularly confront issues involving taxation, public debt, healthcare financing, education, national security, infrastructure and international agreements. These subjects cannot be reduced to campaign slogans. They require the capacity to read documents, interrogate evidence and understand consequences.
The Senate introduces another layer of complexity. Senators occupy a crucial position in Kenya’s system of devolution, with constitutional responsibilities connected to counties and the sharing of national revenue. A senator who cannot comfortably engage with questions of public finance, constitutional responsibility and intergovernmental relations is at a disadvantage in an institution where those questions are central to its work.
This is why the argument for a degree should not be dismissed as elitism. It is an argument about preparation. Kenya expects professionals working around elected leaders to acquire specialised knowledge. Parliamentary clerks, county officials, financial officers, lawyers, engineers and administrators are often required to possess substantial academic and professional qualifications. It is worth asking why the people who ultimately make or approve many of the decisions should be held to a dramatically different standard.
The Governor Is Running a Government
The argument becomes harder to dismiss when it reaches the governor’s office. A governor is not simply a political figure who represents the aspirations of a county. The governor is responsible for leading a county government, overseeing its departments, managing public resources and implementing programmes affecting millions of residents.
Consider what that means in practice. A governor may have to make decisions about hospitals, roads, water, agriculture, markets, employees, procurement and county finances, often while dealing with political pressure from the assembly and citizens. The governor must understand enough about each area to determine whether the people providing advice are offering sound recommendations or merely protecting their own interests.
No degree can guarantee that ability. But education can provide something important: the intellectual foundation for continuous learning.
A governor does not need to know how to design a bridge or diagnose a patient. The governor needs to understand enough to ask the engineer or medical professional the right questions. The same applies to finance, human resources, procurement and law. Leadership increasingly depends not on personally knowing every technical detail, but on being able to understand technical information and make sound judgments about it.
The same logic applies to the Presidency, only on a vastly greater scale.
State House Demands More Than Political Skill
The President of Kenya operates at the intersection of domestic politics and national strategy. The office involves economic management, national security, foreign relations, public administration, legislation, development planning and international diplomacy. Presidential decisions can influence investment, taxation, public borrowing, healthcare, education and the country’s position in the international system.
Yet the case for education should not be reduced to the question of whether a President has a degree. The more important issue is whether Kenya should have a consistent philosophy about qualifications across its entire elective structure.
It makes little sense to argue that the country needs an educated President while treating educational preparation as irrelevant at the bottom of the political ladder. The institutions are connected. MCAs influence county legislation and oversight. MPs make national laws. Senators protect county interests. Governors run county governments. The President leads the national Executive. Each office is different, but each contributes to the machinery of government.
The standard should therefore rise across the ladder rather than appearing only at the top.
A Degree Is Not Enough
There is an important caution, however. Kenya should not make the mistake of believing that once a candidate produces a university certificate, the country has solved the leadership problem.
It has not.
A degree should be a minimum threshold, not a guarantee of competence. Academic qualifications should be independently verified. Candidates should be required to disclose their professional records. Questions of integrity, financial conduct, conflicts of interest and ethical behaviour should receive equally serious attention. Political parties should also take greater responsibility for the quality of candidates they present to voters instead of treating elections as popularity contests.
The country must also confront the legitimate concern that educational requirements can exclude capable people who grew up in poverty. If Kenya chooses to raise the qualification threshold, it must simultaneously expand access to higher education. Scholarships, affordable financing, recognition of legitimate equivalent qualifications and stronger pathways from technical and vocational education can ensure that the requirement does not become a privilege available only to wealthy families.
The answer to inequality should be to widen the road to education, not to lower the standard of leadership.
The Real Issue Is the Complexity of Kenya
Kenya’s political debate is often dominated by personality, ethnicity, party loyalty and campaign promises. But beneath those familiar battles is a country becoming increasingly complicated to govern.
Public debt requires economic understanding. Healthcare financing requires policy knowledge. Climate change requires technical awareness. Digital transformation requires technological literacy. County financing requires knowledge of public finance. Infrastructure requires an understanding of contracts and long-term financial commitments.
A politician does not need to become an expert in all these fields. That would be impossible. But there is a difference between not being an expert and lacking the educational foundation necessary to understand experts.
The modern leader must be able to read a report, question an assumption, interpret evidence, understand a budget and recognise when a seemingly attractive proposal carries a hidden cost.
That is where education becomes a public-interest issue rather than a personal achievement.
Kenya Should Ask More of Those Who Seek Power
Ultimately, the debate about degrees is really a debate about what Kenya expects from political leadership.
For decades, the country has focused heavily on whether politicians can mobilise voters. That is understandable because elections are contests for public confidence. But winning the confidence of voters and possessing the capacity to govern are not necessarily the same thing.
Kenya should expect both.
A candidate should be able to connect with ordinary citizens, understand their frustrations and articulate a compelling vision. But once that candidate asks for the authority to control public resources and participate in government, there should also be evidence of preparation.
The degree would not determine who wins.
The people would still decide.
An educated candidate could still be rejected because of poor character. A candidate with a distinguished academic record could still fail the test of leadership. Integrity, experience, competence, empathy and public trust would remain essential.
But the degree would establish a simple principle: before asking citizens to entrust you with public power, demonstrate that you have attained a reasonable level of education and prepared yourself for the responsibility.
That principle should apply consistently—from the MCA seeking to represent a ward to the President seeking to lead the Republic.
The next election will once again produce thousands of candidates, each promising to fix something, change something or build something. The crowds will cheer, the slogans will spread and the posters will multiply.
But perhaps Kenya should begin asking a more demanding question before the applause begins.
Not simply, Who can win?
Not even simply, Who can speak for us?
But who has prepared themselves to govern us?
That is the standard a modern Kenya should be willing to demand.