Get used to it: Our term of parliament is four years, not five!
By MUNGAI KIHANYA
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
07 January 2018
I hope this will be the last time that I write on the subject of
election dates. I hope too that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries
Commission (IEBC) will clear the air by formally gazetting the date of
the next general election. Majority of Kenyans, including all
politicians, expect it to be in the year 2022; but my view is that it
should be in 2021.
The 2022 view is based on the simple math that 2017 + 5 = 2022. However,
if that logic is applied to the date of the last election, it doesn’t
seem to work out. The first election under the new constitution was held
in 2013, therefore, since 2013 + 5 = 2018, so the second one should have
been held in 2018.
The question then is: why did we hold a general election in 2017?
Lawyers like to say that “the law is very clear”, but I prefer to say
that our constitution is very comprehensive. It has even given the rules
to be followed when determining the duration of events. This is what it
says in Article 259:
“In
calculating time between two events for any purpose under this
Constitution, if the time is expressed as…
years, the period of time ends at the beginning of the date of the
relevant year that corresponds to the date on which the period
began.”
Thus, if something is supposed to last one year starting from today (7th
January 2018), it should end “at the start” of 7th January
2019. Now by international convention, a day begins at midnight. So,
this duration will end one second after 11:59:59pm on 6th
January 2019.
In the same way, the fifth year after 4th March 2013 will end
one second after 11:59:59pm on 2nd March 2018. But the
constitution says that elections should be held “on the second Tuesday
in August in every fifth year”. For that reason, holding the general
election in August 2018 would have been illegal. That month will be in
the sixth year.
That is the reason we held the general election in August 2017. When we
apply this logic starting from 8th August 2017, we find that
the fifth year will end “at the start” of 8th August 2022.
That is, one second after 11:59:59pm on 7th August 2022. Let
me repeat: 8th August 2022 will mark the beginning of the
sixth year.
Now looking at the calendar for 2022, we find that the date of the
second Tuesday in August is the 9th. This date will be in the
sixth year!
For that reason, we must go back to August 2021. The fifth year starts
on Sunday the 8th. So the first Tuesday in the fifth year
will be the 10th and the second one will be the 17th.
Therefore, the date of the next general election will be 17th
August 2021.
All in all; we must get used to the fact that our term of parliament is
four years long, not five!
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