Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris has opened up about the political defeats that shaped her career, recalling how a blocked mayoral bid in 2007, a failed attempt to win the Embakasi parliamentary seat and a narrow loss in the first Woman Representative race eventually paved the way for her 2017 victory.
Passaris said she did not set out to become a Woman Representative, explaining that her entry into elective politics was driven by a bid to become mayor of Nairobi at a time when the city’s mayor was chosen by councillors rather than directly by voters.
Speaking on Radio Generation’s Generation Report on Monday night, Passaris said she had to first become a councillor and then secure the support of a majority of councillors to take the mayoral position.
“I didn't choose Woman Rep. Remember, I started my political journey in 2007, and in 2007 I was running for mayor of Nairobi. At that time, you had to be a councillor, and you had to have a councillors' majority vote for you,” Passaris said.
Her plans, however, were derailed after she was nominated as a councillor but her name was left out of the official Gazette.
Passaris said the nomination had been made by the late ODM leader Raila Odinga, whom she referred to as “Baba”, but the then Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta did not gazette her name.
“Baba(The late Raila Odinga) had nominated me to be a nominated councillor. But Uhuru Kenyatta was the then Local Government Minister. He waited until Friday evening to release the Gazette, and my name was not there, so he didn't gazette my name. Of course, I think they knew that I would win, and at that time, I don't think him and Baba saw eye to eye, so my name wasn't gazetted and I couldn't run,” she said.
The setback ended her first major attempt at elective politics and left her disappointed. She later chose not to pursue another opportunity to repeat the nomination process.
Her return to the political arena came after the death of Embakasi MP Mugabe Were, which led to a by-election in the huge Nairobi constituency that at the time covered what would later become the five Embakasi constituencies.
Passaris said Odinga encouraged her to contest the seat, throwing her into another demanding electoral battle.
“When Mugabe Were died, Baba said, ‘Esther, can you run in Embakasi?’ So I went and ran in Embakasi for MP. I mean, Embakasi, the five Embakasi's together, was massive. You would drive from one end to the other and think you're going from one town to another, and you're still in Nairobi,” she said.
She lost the Embakasi contest, but the defeat became another lesson in dealing with the unpredictable nature of politics.
The 2010 Constitution later introduced the position of Woman Representative, with one seat created for every county in the National Assembly. Passaris seized the opportunity and contested the inaugural Nairobi Woman Representative seat in the 2013 General Election on the Kenya National Congress ticket.
Her campaign, however, faced a challenge when ODM fielded its own candidate, splitting support among voters she believed would otherwise have backed her.
“What happened is the power of a political party. I was there with Kenya National Congress, then an ODM candidate came in, and they split the ODM block. If there wasn't a candidate for ODM, we would have carried the day because people went and voted six-piece orange,” she said.
Rachel Shebesh eventually won the seat, becoming Nairobi’s first Woman Representative.
Despite the defeat, Passaris said she had no bitterness towards Shebesh, whom she credited with helping her during the earlier Embakasi campaign.
“Baba told me Shebesh is going to help you out, so she was the one who guided me through the whole campaign process in Embakasi because I was kind of green at that point. When she won, it was like my sister winning,” she said.
Passaris also pointed to her contest with Shebesh as an example of how political rivals can compete without turning elections into personal or violent battles.
“We had such good campaigns. We can stop having the youth attack our opponents. We can stop that, and I'm a living example. Shebesh and I had a really, really good campaign,” she said.
Four years later, Passaris returned to the ballot and won the Nairobi Woman Representative seat in the 2017 General Election, taking over from Shebesh.
Her victory came after a decade marked by political setbacks, unsuccessful campaigns, changes in political structures and shifting party alliances.
Passaris said the experience reinforced her belief that elections should ultimately respect the choice of voters, regardless of the outcome.
Her journey from an unsuccessful mayoral bid in 2007 to becoming Nairobi Woman Representative in 2017 highlights the long and uncertain road she travelled in elective politics, with each defeat providing another chance to return to the race.