Next general election should be in 2026; not 2027
By MUNGAI KIHANYA
The Sunday Nation
Nairobi,
28 July 2024
I fear that, one day,
the question of the dates of our general elections might come to haunt
us. I don’t know exactly how this will come about, but something at the
back of my mind whispers to me that, in future, we might regret the way
we have done it so far.
The popular public
opinion is that we should hold elections every five years. However, the
correct position according to the law is that they should be held before
the expiry of five years. Our previous constitution stated that the
president shall dissolve parliament before expiry of five years and, if
he doesn’t, the House would stand dissolved automatically at the end of
five years.
One of the things
that Kenyans wanted when making the new constitution was a predictable
general election date. Borrowing from the duration stipulated in the old
laws, the drafters of the new constitution wrote that “a general
election shall be held on the second Tuesday in August in every fifth
year”.
This made the date
predictable and also ensured that we shall not go for more than five
years without holding elections. Now, the first general lection under
the 2010 constitution was held on 4th March 2013. This was in
accordance with section 9[1] of the sixth schedule of the constitution.
The second general
election needed to be held “on the second Tuesday in August in the fifth
year” after 4th March 2013. The fifth year ended on 3rd
March 2018 and so we had elections correctly on the 8th
August 2017.
After these polls,
the third general election came on 9th August 2022. This was
the wrong date! I advised the IEBC formally of the mistake but they did
not heed my advice. I also wrote about it several times in this column
and, each time, many people responded to me with convoluted ways of
counting the years – all intended to make 9th August 2022 the
correct date.
But the constitution
is very clear: the election must be held “in every fifth year”. It
doesn’t say “after every five years”! Therefore, the third general
election should have been held before 8th August 2022. It
should have been a year earlier - on 17th August 2021.
All said and done, we
are now looking toward the fourth general election under the 2010
constitution. Counting from 9th August 2022, five years will
end on 8th August 2027. Therefore, we should hold the
elections on the 18th of August 2026.
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