Legal framework

The legal provisions relating to the general elections in Kenya are scattered in a large number of legal documents including the Constitution, Laws and subsidiary legislation (rules and regulations):

Constitution of Kenya

Legislation (Acts of Parliament)

Subsidiary Legislation (delegated legislation)

Kenya has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted on 16 December 1966.

Institutional framework and electoral system

Institutions: The Constitution provides for an executive Presidency and a Parliament which consists of the President and a National Assembly of 210 directly elected members and 12 nominated members, all with a five-year term. The Attorney General and the Speaker of the National Assembly are ex officio members of the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

President: The President is directly elected by popular vote. The presidential election is held under a qualified majority system where the winning candidate is required to win a majority of the votes and to have obtained at least 25% of the valid votes cast in at least five of the eight provinces of Kenya. He/she must also have won election to a seat in the parliament. If no candidate meets all of these requirements a second round is held between the two candidates with the highest number of valid votes. In a second election, again the threshold of 25% of the vote in at least five of the eight provinces is applied.

Parliament: The parliamentary elections are based on the first-past-the-post, single-member constituency system. For parliamentary elections, Kenya is divided into 210 constituencies. Additionally, there are twelve members of parliament appointed by the President upon nomination by political parties proportional to the parties’ strength in the Parliament.

Local Government: Some 2,484 Local Authority Councils will also be elected under the Local Government Act (Chapter 265) and the Local Government Election Rules.

Voters: A person shall be qualified to be registered as a voter in elections to the National Assembly and in elections of a President if, at the date of his application to be registered, he is a citizen of Kenya who has attained the age of eighteen years and has been ordinarily resident in Kenya for a period of not less than one year immediately preceding that date (Constitution, section 43).

Political parties and candidates: The Republic of Kenya shall be a multiparty democratic state (Constitution, section 1A). A total of 144 political parties were registered officially by the Registrar of societies as at 25 September 2007. The process to nominate candidates is organised by the Electoral Commission. All candidates must be nominated by a political party (independent candidates are not allowed).

Electoral disputes: Complaints can be filed with the Electoral Commission regarding the conduct of the elections. The High Court has jurisdiction to hear any formal election petition related to Presidential and National Assembly elections. Upon a decision by the High Court on an election petition, an appeal can be lodged with the Court of Appeal.