The Politics of Kenya take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, and of a multi-party system.
Following the dispute over the December 2007 presidential election results, and the consequent post election Violence, Kenya formed a Grand Coalition Government, which enabled sharing of executive powers between the President and a Prime Minister. Under this arrangement, 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. And the judiciary is supposed to be independent of the executive and the legislature.
Kenya’s Democracy
Kenya’s democracy is a hybrid of the North American and British Westminster models that combines constitutionalism, participation and representation at both the national and local levels. It operates a system in which the media are both actors and facilitators.
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 ceremony in Nairobi's Uhuru Park. On that day the new constitution, heralding the Second Republic, came into force.
Political Regimes
Kenya has gone through different political regimes, each with its own characteristics that have mainly been influenced by its leadership.
Colonian Era (1895-1962)
The colonial history of Kenya dates from the Berlin Conference of 1885, when the European powers first partitioned East Africa into spheres of influence. In 1895, the U.K. Government established the East African Protectorate and, soon after, opened the fertile highlands to white settlers. The settlers were allowed a voice in government even before it was officially made a U.K. colony in 1920, but Africans were prohibited from direct political participation until 1944.
Post Independence Jomo Kenyatta Era (1963-1978)
On December 12, 1963, Kenya got her independence from Britain. Although the independence constitution provided for a multi-party system of government, this did not last very long. Shortly after independence, the government, led by the Kenya African National Union (KANU) and under president Jomo Kenyatta, set about to make Kenya a one-party state. Even though there existed no law to this effect, the country operated as a de-facto one-party state between 1964 and 1966 and later between 1969 and 1982. Amid fears of formations of oppositional political parties, the parliament passed a law in 1982 making it illegal to form any other political party other than the ruling party, KANU (Barkan, 1992). Therefore, from 1982 henceforth, Kenya became a one-party state by law.
President Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi Era (1978-2002)
Upon the death of Kenyatta in 1978 and as president Moi ascended to power, he sought out to be more interested in liquidating those perceived as being against his rule. To ascertain his hold on power, he systematically arrogated the functions of the other institutions of governance.
By early 1990, disillusionment with the Moi government was gaining momentum. And like elsewhere in Africa, not even Kenya could stand immune to the political wave for democratic reforms that was sweeping across the world in the early 1990s (Huntington’s 1991). Hence, after two years of a protracted local campaign for multi-partyism, accompanied by external pressure from western powers and their donor agencies, President Moi was finally forced to end the status of Kenya as a one-party state and establish the legal framework for multi-party politics. Section 2a of the Constitution was repealed in December 1992 (Ajulu, 1993) and in December 1991, multi-party democracy was inaugurated in Kenya. And on 29 December 1992, the first multi- party general elections (Presidential, Parliamentary and Civic) since political independence in 1963 took place in Kenya.
In October 2002, a coalition of opposition parties joined forces with a faction which broke away from KANU to form the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC). In December 2002, the NARC candidate, Mwai Kibaki, was elected the country’s third President. President Kibaki received 62% of the vote, and NARC also won 59% of the parliamentary seats (130 out of 222).
President Mwai Kibaki Era (2003-TO DATE)
In the 2002 Presidential elections, President Kibaki came to power through the National Alliance party (NARC) on the promise of change. Following his pledge to democracy, his NARC government was largely assumed to be a reformist one and one that would decisively address the legal, regulatory and policy flaws that had undermined governance and crippled social-economic development in Kenya during the past political regimes.
Tribal Maths
Why do I include the issue of tribe in Kenyan politics? It is because politics and elections in Kenya are characterized by propagation of tribalism, political affiliations and historical land and resource grievances. Ethnic rivalries are a reality of the political and economical life in Kenya.
Kenya has 42 ethnic communities, with 3 - the Kikuyu, the Luo and the Luhyia - together representing almost 60% of the entire population.
