Elections in Kenya

The legislature initially had 11 elected Europeans and three members appointed to represent Indians and Arabs, together with a number of nominated officials.

The Kenya African National Union (KANU) emerged as the largest party, winning 19 seats and taking 67.5% of the vote.

KANU won a majority in the House of Representatives and the most seats in the Senate, allowing Jomo Kenyatta to become the first Prime Minister, and upon independence the following year, President.

Multi-party politics remained in place for a few years after independence; when several KANU MPs left the party to form the Kenya People's Union (KPU) in 1966, a constitutional amendment was passed requiring them to face by-elections.

With the wave of democratisation sweeping across Africa in the early 1990s, multi-party politics was reintroduced, together with the direct election of the president.

Although Kibaki was declared the winner in the presidential contest, opposition parties won a majority of seats in the National Assembly.

However, the presidential election results were annulled and a re-run held in October, which was won by Kenyatta after a boycott by Odinga.

[4] The Senate has 68 seats, of which 47 are elected from single-member constituencies based on the counties using first-past-the-post, and the remaining 21 are appointed; 16 women based on party's seat numbers, two representing disabled groups and two representing youth (both of which must consist of a male and female nominee) and one elected Speaker.