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Kenya Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Kenya
Official Name: Republic of Kenya
Capital: Nairobi
Area: 580,370 square kilometres (224,082 square miles)
Major cities (Population)
Nairobi 2,079,000 (1995 estimate)
Mombasa 442,369 (1985 estimate)
Kisumu 167,100 (1984)
Nakuru 150,000 (1991 estimate)
Population: 28,261,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 3.6 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 12 December 1963 (from the United Kingdom)
Constitution: 12 December 1963, amended as a republic 1964; reissued with amendments several times
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
The president is head of government and chief of state. The president selects a vice president from among the members of the national assembly, which is called the Bunge. All citizens are eligible to vote at the age of 18.
Recent History
Following a period of violent partisan uprisings (called the Mau Mau Rebellion) in the 1950s, the United Kingdom granted Kenya its independence in 1963. It remains in the Commonwealth as a sovereign republic.
Jomo Kenyatta, leader of the independence struggle, served as the first president until his death in 1978. He formed a strong central government under one political party, the Kenya African National Union (KANU). He was succeeded by Daniel T. arap Moi. In 1982 KANU was proclaimed the only legal political party, in order to avoid the formation of political parties based on ethnic groups. Elections were still held, but all candidates were required to register with KANU; Moi, the only presidential candidate, was re-elected.
Economic difficulties, charges of human-rights violations, and political unrest brought calls for Moi to relinquish authoritarian rule and open the country to multi-party democracy. Protests in July 1990 led to the arrest of hundreds of dissidents and the banning of publications that criticized the government. Moi denied all requests for multi-party elections, but pressure from other countries eventually led Moi to change his position. First, in 1991, he rescinded the 1982 constitutional provision that gave KANU its dominance. Then, in January 1992, he allowed anti-government protests. His actions and those of parliament represented a reintroduction of the multi-party system that had existed earlier in Kenya’s history.
Several political parties were formed in anticipation of national elections, which were held in December 1992. Moi won the presidential election with only 36.4 per cent of the vote, but the three main opposition parties made strong gains in parliament. Fighting between Kalenjin and Kikuyu ethnic groups in the western Rift Valley in 1993 left more than 150,000 people homeless. Western powers began to withhold aid and support for President Moi in 1991, because the government was implicated in various attacks, but in 1993 the West agreed to lift their boycott in response to the Kenyan government’s efforts towards greater democracy. However, several incidents involving the harassment of opposition politicians by the authorities were reported in 1994 and 1995.
Kibaki rules out early elections in Kenya
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15 August 2004
The Kenyan President Kibaki said that the present Government is stable and that there is no need for an early elections before 2007. Addressing a meeting in the Kenyan town of Ol Kalou Town at the Nyayo Stadium, he said that early elections are 'a waste of lot of money'.
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