She grew up with next to nothing on the slopes of Mount Kenya, walking barefoot to school and sharing a bed and single blanket with her eight sisters.

Lucy Gichuhi, who's likely to become Australia's next senator for South Australia, has told Lateline how in between school, she would work gathering food her family.

"You have to help with going to the garden to pick the next meal for the day, because we didn't go to the shops for food, or you go help milk the cows," she told Lateline.

Mrs Gichuhi insists she's got what it takes to make it as an Australian senator. ( ABC News )

"Here we call it child labour.

"Sometimes there wasn't electricity. You make do with what you have."

But Mrs Gichuhi said the concept of poverty never entered her mind, and these days she is firmly against government handouts.

"The trouble with handouts is they create victims and nobody wins," she said.

"And it's a bottomless pit ... and then, given we are in an ageing community and very soon we're going to have few people working and a lot of people to support, is it sustainable?"

Lucy Gichuhi and her husband William on their wedding day. ( Supplied: Lucy Gichuhi )

At last year's election, Mrs Gichuhi was listed second on Family First's ticket in South Australia, behind Bob Day.

Last week, the High Court ruled Mr Day's election was invalid and ordered a special count of South Australian ballot papers from last year's poll.

Despite the fact Mrs Gichuhi only received 152 first-preference votes, she'll receive the rest of Family First's votes, placing her as favourite to take a seat in the Senate.

Questions have been raised over whether Mrs Gichuhi held dual citizenship at the time of the election — something that would bar her from being in Parliament.

Kenya's High Commissioner to Australia said she automatically lost that citizenship when she became an Australian citizen, however legal experts argue a challenge could still be launched against her.

"I would be absolutely honoured to serve south Australians. Absolutely honoured. And I will take that challenge and run with it," she said.

Gichuhi 'fell into' politics after studying law

Her hard-line position on welfare handouts could help the Government in its attempt to make budget savings — if she ends up on the Senate crossbench as expected.

But Labor sources have told Lateline they don't expect the Kenyan-born migrant to vote along Government lines as often as former senator Bob Day.

Mrs Gichuhi came to politics late in life, saying she "fell into it" after studying a law degree.

"I just followed one step after another. One door opening and then I'm going through and I found myself in a situation where the political door opened and that's where I am," she said.

Lucy Gichuhi as a baby with her mother. ( Supplied: Lucy Gichuhi )

She said her Christian faith was the backbone of her political beliefs.

"I believe I'm here for a reason and a purpose and that reason can only come from God. That is my key belief," she said.

She believes strongly in freedom of religion, but wouldn't be drawn on whether same-sex couples should be free to marry.

"I don't want to talk about that now. I think it's too specific," she said.

Mrs Gichuhi insists she's got what it takes to make it as an Australian senator.

"I was tough enough to land in Australia 19 years ago knowing no one. Only with [my husband] William and three toddlers. If I could do that …" she said.

She added she wouldn't change a thing about the path her life has taken, despite the poverty she experienced as a child.

"I think it was a rich life. Because this concept of poverty never existed in our mind," she said. "That taught us to share. That taught us to care."