Bleak Future for Multi-Party Elections in Kenya

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Periodical article

Title:	Bleak Future for Multi-Party Elections in Kenya
Author:	Fox, Roddy
Year:	1996
Periodical:	Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:	34
Issue:	4
Period:	December
Pages:	597-607
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	elections multiparty systems Politics and Government
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/161590
Abstract:	The present distribution of parliamentary constituencies in Kenya is inequitable. Votes for KANU (Kenya African National Union) in the 1992 multiparty elections counted for far more than votes for the opposition. The Electoral Commission, under its reappointed chairman, has further increased these disparities by allocating extra constituencies to the new, mainly pro-KANU districts. Thus the 1997 multiparty elections will begin from a basis which is already 'unfree and unfair'. In terms of mounting a successful strategy at either parliamentary or presidential level in Kenya, alliance building is important for all parties since the underlying trend is for voting to follow largely tribal and ethnic lines. The present constitution will only reward a presidential candidate from the opposition with a broad support base, and who does not split the votes of the Kikuyu and Luo communities. Notes, ref.