Diaspora voting kenya 2022

Yesterday, August 9, 2022, Kenyans marched to the polls to elect their new set of political leaders. At the time of writing this on the day of the election, ...

This is very much unlike Nigeria where the Independent National Electoral Commission is the body that determines the date of election, a date which is often not held sacred due to serial postponement of the general elections. I am of the considered view that it is worth having the Nigerian term of office amended to be a maximum of two terms of five years each. A runoff is scheduled within 30 days of the first election if no candidate receives more than half of the votes cast in the election and at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in 24 counties. The Kenyan constitution stipulates that for one to win the presidential election, a candidate must receive over 50 per cent of the total votes cast and at least 25 per cent of the votes in at least 24 of the 47 counties. It is very interesting to note that Electoral Dispute Resolution is diffused across a range of institutions and processes in Kenya to handle different types of issues. Not only that but prisoners can also vote in Kenya, however, this is only in the presidential election. In this respect, the National Assembly reserves 47 seats for women and the Senate reserves 16 for women, with two more Senate seats reserved for women representing youth and persons with disabilities.” Interestingly, three out of the four presidential candidates chose female running mates. Frontrunner Raila Odinga decided to withdraw from the second race, allowing President Kenyatta to win a landslide with over 98 per cent of the vote. William Ruto, who is the current Deputy President and a frontline candidate in this election, may however pull a surprise given his relatively young age of 55 and the resonation of his campaign of “Hustler Movement” with the Kenyan youths. According to the 2010 Constitution, no more than two-thirds of the membership of any elective body in Kenya may be of the same sex. A defeat of Raila is a defeat of the Kenyatta and Odinga dynasties. This is because he has the backing of his foe-turned-friend and outgoing president, Uhuru Kenyatta, despite not belonging to the same political party.