The correct way to count general election dates
By MUNGAI KIHANYA
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
05 March 2017
Last month, our
parliamentarians suggested that they should get a special severance pay
because they believe that their term in office will be shortened by
eight months. Their logic was that, from the March 2013 general
election, their five years will end in March 2018; that is, 2013 + 5 =
2018.
This is simply not
correct! The constitution does not give a five-year term of parliament.
It says that the term ends on the date of the general election.
Therefore, there absolutely no basis for saying that the length of the
current House has been shortened: It will run its full constitutional
length and end on the 8th day of August 2017.
Furthermore, the
constitution specifies the dates of general elections: this is the
second Tuesday in August in every fifth year. Notice that it does not
say “after five years”.
Starting from 4th
March 2013, the first year ran up to 3rd March 2014; the
second one started on 4th March 2014 and ended on 3rd
March 2015; the third was from 4th March 2015 to 3rd
March 2016; the fourth from 4th March 2016 to 3rd
March 2017.
The fifth year since
the last general election started yesterday (4th March 2017)
and will run up to 3rd March 2018. Now the constitution says
that election must be held on the second Tuesday in August in every
fifth year. There is only one such date and it will be the 8th
August 2017. On that day, the term of the current parliament will come
to an end. The question of it being shortened does not arise!
I had predicted that this sort of thing was going to happen way back on
Sunday, 3rd March 2013 when I wrote: “Let
no body come up with some funny theory as to why we should wait until
4th March 2018 [for next general election]”. It seems that the
politicians didn’t read that warning!
After reading that article of 3rd March 2013, one J. P. Kamau
pointed out to me that, if we continue counting in the same manner
starting from 8th August 2017, we shall find that the
subsequent general election will fall on Tuesday 17th August
2021.
The count goes like this:
The first year runs from 8th August 2017 to 7th
August 2018;
The second year from 8th August 2018 to 7th August
2019;
The third one from 8th August 2019 to 7th August
2020;
The fourth from 8th August 2020 to 7th August
2021;
Finally the fifth year runs from 8th August 2021 to 7th
August 2022.
Looking at the calendars for 2021 and 2022, it turns out that the second Tuesday in August 2022 will be the 9th day of that month. But that will fall outside the fifth year. Therefore, the general election after 2017 will be on 17th August 2021. I emphasise: There will be no general election in Kenya in 2022! And I repeat my earlier caution “Let no body come up with some funny theory as to why we should wait until 9th August 2022”!
 |
 |