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Kenya

This article is part of the series:

Politics and government of
Kenya

• Constitution (history)
• President
o Mwai Kibaki
• Vice-President
o Kalonzo Musyoka
• Prime Minister (List)
o Raila Odinga
• Ministers
• National Assembly
o Speaker
 Kenneth Marende
• Elections: 2002, 2007
o Constituencies
• Provinces
• Districts
• Divisions
• Locations
• Sub-locations
• Political parties
• Human rights
• Corruption

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The Politics of Kenya take place in a framework of a presidential representative

democratic republic, whereby the President of Kenya is both head of state and head of
government, and of a multi-party system. Recent constitutional amendments have
enabled sharing of executive powers between the President and a Prime Minister.
Executive power is exercised by the government, with powers shared between the
President and a Prime Minister, who coordinates and supervises the cabinet. Legislative
power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The judiciary is
independent of the executive and the legislature.

A constitutional referendum was held in Kenya on August 4, 2010[1] on whether to

adopt the new proposed constitution passed by parliament on April 1, 2010. It was
promulgated on 27 August 2010 at a euphoric ceremony in Nairobi's Uhuru Park,
accompanied by a 21-gun salute. The event was graced by a number of African leaders
and praised by the international community. On that day the new constitution, heralding
the Second Republic, came into force.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Executive branch
• 2 Legislative branch
• 3 Political parties and elections
• 4 Judicial branch
• 5 Administrative divisions
• 6 Political conditions
• 7 References
• 8 International organization participation
• 9 References
• 10 Further reading

• 11 External links

[edit] Executive branch

Main office holders
Office Name Party Since
President Mwai Kibaki PNU 29 December 2007
Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka ODM-K 18 January 2008
Prime Minister Raila Odinga ODM 17 April 2008

The president is elected for a five year term by the people. The constitution of Kenya has
three requirements for any candidate to be declared winner:

• to get the largest number of votes among all contestants nationwide in absolute
terms
• to win at least 25% of the vote in at least five of Kenya's eight provinces
• to be elected member of parliament in a constituency.

If none of the candidates fulfills all three requirements there is to be a runoff between the
two contenders with the highest number of votes.
The president appoints the vice president and cabinet members from among those elected
to the National Assembly. Under the power sharing agreement signed by President Mwai
Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement, the post
of prime minister was constitutionally created and ministers appointed to reflect political
parties' relative strength in the National Assembly. The Raila Odinga led party, the
Orange Democratic Movement is currently the largest party in Kenya's parliament. Under
the power-sharing agreement, each of the two major parties also nominated a deputy
prime minister.[2] See also: Kenyan ministers.

[edit] Legislative branch

The unicameral National Assembly or Bunge has 224 members, 210 members elected for
a five year term in single-seat constituencies, 12 members nominated by political parties
in proportion to their share of seats won in the single-member constituencies and 2 ex
officio members: the attorney general and the speaker.

Kenyan Parliament Building [1]

[edit] Political parties and elections

Main articles: List of political parties in Kenya and Elections in Kenya

[edit] Judicial branch

The judiciary is headed by a High Court, consisting of a chief justice and High Court
judges and judges of Kenya's Court of Appeal (no associate judges), all appointed by the
president.

[edit] Administrative divisions

Local administration is divided among 69 rural districts, each headed by a presidentially
appointed commissioner. The districts are joined to form seven rural provinces. The
government supervises administration of districts and provinces. The administrative
divisions are 8 provinces: Central, Coast, Eastern, Nairobi, North Eastern, Nyanza, Rift
Valley, Western.

[edit] Political conditions

Political Parade in Lamu, held in July, 2001

Since independence, Kenya has maintained remarkable stability despite changes in its
political system and crises in neighboring countries. Particularly since the re-emergence
of multiparty democracy, Kenyans have enjoyed an increased degree of freedom.

A cross-party parliamentary reform initiative in the fall of 1997 revised some oppressive
laws inherited from the colonial era that had been used to limit freedom of speech and
assembly. This improved public freedoms and contributed to generally credible national
elections in December 1997.

In December 2002, Kenya held democratic and open elections and elected Mwai Kibaki
as their new president. The elections, which were judged free and fair by local and
international observers, marked an important turning point in Kenya's democratic
evolution. President Kibaki campaigned on a policy of generating economic growth,
improving education, combating corruption, and implementing a new constitution, the
draft of which was produced by Professor Ghai under the Moi regime. Considerable
success has been achieved in the first two policy areas, the constitutional process has
become mired (see below) and the fight against corruption has been a disaster. There has
been a major scandal (Anglo-Leasing), which the government has failed to investigate,
John Githongo the Anti-Corruption head has resigned in protest and donor nations, in
particular the British, have made public criticisms of the lack of progress.

Following disagreements between the partners in the current government coalition,

constitutional reform has proceeded slower than anticipated. The NAK faction (allied to
president Kibaki) favours a centralized presidential system, while the LDP faction -
which has fewer parliamentary seats in the coalition than NAK - demands a federal,
parliamentary system.
A Kenyan private security officer

Prior to the 2002 election, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)was agreed between

NAK and LDP, which laid the basis for the two groups to fight the election under the
NARC (Rainbow Alliance) banner. The MoU agreed that a new constitution would be
established shortly after the election, which provided for the new role of a strong Prime
Minister while weakening the role of President. Raila Odinga, the leader of LDP,
maintains aspirations to become Prime Minister. However, the proposed new constitution
has been modified by the government from what was written by Professor Ghai and
amended by the Bomas committee. This maintains a strong President, who controls a
weaker Prime Minister. This has led to a split between NAK and LDP, with the former
campaigning for a 'Yes' vote in the forthcoming referendum on the constitution and the
latter a 'No'. Also supporting a 'No' vote is the majority of Uhuru Kenyatta's KANU
party, the sole party of government from independence to 2002. It is possible that the
political alignment over the referendum could signal a wider re-alignment before the
2007 elections.

Internal wrangling within the governing coalition has also negatively affected other
crucial areas of governance, notably the planned large-scale privatization of government-
owned enterprises.

The 2007 presidential elections were largely believed to have been flawed with
international observers stating that they did not meet regional or international standards.
Most observers suggest that the tallying process for the presidential results were rigged to
the advantage of the incumbent president Mwai Kibaki, despite overwhelming
indications that his rival and current Prime Minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, won the
election. In July 2008, exit polls commissioned by the US government were released,
revealing that Odinga had won the election by a comfortable margin of 6%, well outside
of the poll's 1.3% margin of error.[3]

There was significant and widespread violence in the country - 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis
- following the unprecedented announcement of Kibaki as the winner of the 2007
presidential elections. The violence leading to the deaths of almost 1000 and the
displacement of almost 600,000 and some researchers note it allowed the violent
settlement of land disputes between ethnic groups over controversial concepts of
'ancestral homelands'.[4] A diplomatic solution was achieved, as the two rivals were later
united in a grand coalition government following international mediation, led by former
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, under a power-sharing National Accord on
Reconciliation Act, entrenched in the constitution. Following the agreement, power was
shared between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister, Raila Odinga.

Several steps were recommended to ensure stability and peace for the Nation during the
negotiations that led to the formation of the Coalition government.One of these reforms is
the famous Agenda 4 that deals with reforms in various sectors. A new constitution has
been identified as a key area in fulfilling Agenda 4. A draft constitution has been
published and Kenyans will vote on August 4, 2010 for or against the proposed
constitution.

[edit] References
1. ^ "Kenya referendum date set", Daily Nation, May 14, 2010
2. ^ BBC News - Kenya rivals agree to share power 02.28.08
3. ^ The Nation, July 8, 2008
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?
category_id=2&newsid=127059 US-funded exit poll says Raila won election
4. ^ Samir Elhawary (2008) Crisis in Kenya: land, displacement and the search for
'durable solutions' Overseas Development Institute

[edit] International organization participation

Kenya is member of ACP, AfDB, AU C, EADB, ECA, FAO, G-15, G-77, IAEA, IBRD,
ICAO, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IGAD, ILO, IMF, IMO,
ITUC, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OPCW, UN,
UNAMSIL, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNIKOM, UNMEE, UNMIBH, UNMIK,
UNMISET, UNMOP, UNU, UPU, WCO, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO

[edit] References
• Notes from Nairobi Blog about Kenyan politics for The Walrus magazine,
• BBC News - Kenya rivals agree to share power 28 February 2008.
• Photojournalist's Account - Images of Kenya's last presidential election
• CIA World Factbook Entry
• Kenyan politics

[edit] Further reading

• Michaela Wrong (2010), It's Our Turn to Eat: the Story of a Kenyan Whistle
Blower, Fourth Estate, Reviewed in The Daily Telegraph.
[edit] External links
News

• Daily Nation
• The Standard
• Coastweek
• Kenyan Issues
• Kenyan Stuff

Others

• Kenya Government at the Open Directory Project

• Kenya Referendum
• Kitching, Gavin (1980). Class and Economic Change in Kenya. Yale University
Press. ISBN 0300023855. http://www.gavinkitching.com/africa_1.htm.
• Kimaiyo, Towett J. (2004). Ogiek Land Cases and Historical Injustices — 1902–
2004. Nakuru, Kenya: Ogiek Welfare Council. pp. 127 pages + appendices.
http://www.oocities.com/OgiekLand/. (Full text of book at link.)
• Strengthening U.S. Ties With Kenya Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation, April
24, 1990
• "Who Owns Kenya? — What is the Queen Doing in Parliament?". March 31,
2007. http://www.oocities.com/WhoOwnsKenya/.

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