References: The Constitution of Kenya (Section 43) provides that any citizen of Kenya over the age of 18 can register as a voter. However, this right is presently reserved for Kenyans who are in the country both during voter registration and balloting. There has been a strong campaign to enable non-resident Kenyans to participate.

The now-defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya [ECK] had previously clarified as follows:

"A person shall be qualified to be registered as a voter in Elections to the National Assembly and in the elections of the President if he/she is a Kenyan citizen of age 18 who has been ordinarily resident in Kenya either for a period of not less than one year immediately preceding that date or for a period of, or periods amounting in the aggregate to, not less than fours years in the eight years immediately preceding that date. Alternatively, the person should have, for a period of, or periods amounting in the aggregate to, not less than five months in the twelve months immediately preceding that date, been ordinarily resident in the constituency in which he applies to be registered, or has for such a period or periods carried on business there or has for such a period or periods been employed there or has for such a period or periods lawfully possessed land or residential buildings there. No person shall be qualified to be registered as a voter in elections if: Under any law in force in Kenya , he/she is adjudged or otherwise declared to be of unsound mind, is an undischarged bankrupt, having been adjudged, or otherwise declared bankrupt under a law in force in Kenya, is detained in lawfully custody, or is disqualified there from by Act of Parliament on the grounds of his/her having been convicted of an offense connected with elections or on the grounds of his/her having been reported guilty of the offense by the court trying an election petition."

Electoral matters are currently handled by the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (see [ LINK ]).

References: The Constitution of Kenya (Chapter 2, Part I, Section 9) provides that a president shall hold office for a term of five years beginning from the date of swearing in, after which there will be a general election covering the presidency, Parliament and local authorities. See [ LINK ].

References: One needs a national identity card (ID) acquirable on reaching age 18 to register as a voter; yet the issuance of such cards has been very inefficient. For example, during the last days of the most recent voter registration exercise (July 2007), the queue of people seeking IDs was greater than that of those seeking voters' cards. See "Voter Registration Exercise to Close Tuesday," by Naisula Lesuuda (July 9, 2007) at [ LINK ].

Furthermore, registered voters are disenfranchised by the mismanagement of the exercise. Polling stations may be too far away or overcrowded; violence may deter participation; ballot papers may be inadequate; voter cards may be purchased by candidates to undermine opponents, etc. And of course, one has to be in the country at the time of the balloting to participate.

Peer Review Comments: In some parts of Kenya especially northern Kenya and coastal regions it is quite hard ti get an ID as one has to prove that they are not foreigners especially Somali's posing as Kenyans.

References: Provisions exist for secret balloting, however these are often violated for various reasons. A primary impediment to secret balloting is illiteracy, meaning a presiding officer must assist a voter to mark their ballot paper, albeit in the presence of all candidates' agents.

This provides room for chicanery where some candidates are unrepresented. The logistics of getting materials to polling stations also provides room for mischief as negotiating Kenyan roads can be quite difficult, especially during the rains. What this means is that candidates from the outgoing ruling party often have a head start, since their party controls the government resources that are used to facilitate election process, such as transportation, police security, etc.

See [ LINK ].

Peer Review Comments: Note that candidates that use bribery now require that voters claim illiteracy so that it can be known how they voted (the helpers are agents of candidates). The bribe is then paid after the helper has reported what the voter voted.

References: The constitutional provision for a general election every five years has been observed consistently since independence. Where a parliamentary seat falls vacant because of the death of a sitting member or through some other disqualification, such as nullification of an election through a court petition, by-elections have also been held according to the letter of the law.

However, election petitions have often taken too long to resolve, denying justice to electors and petitioners. For example, the eve of the December 2007 elections saw about 10 petitions unresolved from the December 2002 elections, meaning that affected constituencies might have been represented by the wrong person for the intervening five years. This situation has improved somewhat. Of the 39 petitions arsing from the December 2007 elections, 20 had been resolved by January 2009. However, the pending ones two years after the vote reflect gross injustice. See [ LINK ].

References: The Constitution of Kenya (Chapter V) provides for freedom of assembly, which enables people to register political parties, previously under the Societies Act (Cap 108 of the Laws of Kenya), but under the Political Parties Act since January 2009. The Political Parties Act (Cap 10 of 2007) established the office of the Registrar of Political Parties working under the Electoral Commission of Kenya, who shall be responsible for maintaining a register of political parties. Section 12 (2) of the Act provides that: "A citizen of Kenya who has attained the age of 18 years has, subject to the provisions of this Act, the right to form a political party." See [ LINK ].

References: The Constitution of Kenya (Sections 70, 78, 79, 80 and 81) guarantees fundamental freedoms and rights of conscience, expression, assembly and movement. However, participation in electoral parliamentary and civic politics, and indeed in registration of political parties, requires one to be at least 18 and therefore eligible for a national identity card. Such prospective candidates must also be literate. The National Assemblies and Presidential Elections Act also requires candidates for the presidency to be 35. This legislation can be seen at [ LINK ].

References: The link between the age of maturity (18) and access to the national ID means that only adults may form political parties. Besides this caveat, there is nothing barring any category of adult citizen from forming a party. The Political Parties Act (2007) specifically blocks formation of factional parties based on any form of discrimination (gender, ethnicity, faith, etc.) and also bars certain categories of public officers from party activity, such as members of the armed forces.

This freedom to form political parties has resulted in Kenya having more than 150 registered parties many of which are 'briefcase' parties that only come into the fore on the eve of an election. See [ LINK ].

However, inefficient procedures may deter people from forming parties. For one, party registration remains centralized in the national capital, Nairobi, imposing additional costs on prospective applicants. Illiteracy is a further impediment to such an undertaking, as is gender bias with a disproportionately few of Kenya's 144 registered political parties headed by women. However, the arena is comparatively open.

Peer Review Comments: In practice 18 is the standard practice for defining adulthood and thus responsibility. Restriction of 18 years is reasonable

References: In practice, only adult citizens can run for political office. Furthermore, public servants, including members of the uniformed cadres, may not run for political office. Given the multi-party system, candidates must find a sponsoring party, as independent candidates are not permitted to run.

Since the 1992 removal of the 40,000 shilling (US$6,000) campaign spending ceiling, electioneering has become a very expensive preserve of the non-poor and/or well-connected. Whereas civic candidates might thrive on small loyalties, such as being a local football coach, parliamentary candidates must establish a worthy budget for posters, T-shirts, travel and direct handouts. These costs disenfranchise more than just the approximately 50 percent of Kenyans living below the poverty line. However, there have been instances where some unlikely candidates have been nominated to contest, such as an unemployed candidate in 2007. Section 32 of the Political parties Act requires parties to account for their electioneering spending, but this is not the case for individuals.

See [ LINK ].

Peer Review Comments: Anyone can run for office if he or she wishes. The chances of wining are however very small if one has little means give the lack of controls on expenditures, however relatively ordinary people do still manage to win elections.

One can not lack a party to sponsor one even if independent candidates are not allowed

References: The Kenyan parliament has no official opposition. Following the violence that attended the disputed results of the December 2007 presidential elections, international mediators led by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan negotiated a settlement in which the leading presidential contenders formed a Grand Coalition Government. This coalition government accounted for 196 of the 207 contested seats. The law provides that the remaining 13 seats to be filled through nomination be shared out according to party strength, meaning that only 11 seats in Kenya 210-strong parliament do not belong to the coalition. For the results, see [ LINK ].

Since the formation of the coalition government, some individual members of the coalition who were not appointed to the cabinet have joined hands with the non-coalition members to demand to be allowed to take up the role of an official opposition. Their National Assembly (Parliamentary Opposition) Bill, 2008 has had one reading in October 2008.

Peer Review Comments: While technically there is no official opposition the coalition does not act as one group. One can discern difference in positions taken by each side of the coalition.

For instance the government has pushed for a bill to have a local tribunal to prosecute those who perpetrated the 2007 election violence but it has been unable to push this legislation.

Also the finance minister (part of PNU) was forced to resign amid the scandal revolving around the sale of grand regency hotel. While motion to censure agriculture minister (part of ODM) due to selling of strategic maize stocks never went through.

Peer Review Comments: The opposition has a strong participation in our legislature. However, following an inconclusive election held in December 2008, a coalition government was formed that brought together the main parties to form the government. Accordingly, the opposition's influence was reduced. However, many dissenters have emerged within the parties that formed the government and as a result, the opposing voices are well represented, not merely token.