Elections, Representations and the New Constitution

In 2010, on the cusp of Kenya’s new constitutional dispensation, SID embarked on a project called "Thinking, Talking and Informing Kenya’s Democratic Change Framework". Broadly stated, the objective of the project was both historical and contemporary: that is, to reflect on Kenyans struggles for a democratic order through a book project, and to examine the significance of a new constitutional order and its legal and policy imperatives, through a Working Paper Series.

Consequently, SID commissioned research on some of the chapters or aspects of the new constitution that require further policy and legislative intervention, culminating in ten Working Papers. These papers, mostly by Kenyan academics, are intended to help shape public discussions on the constitution and to build a stock of scholarly work on this subject.

Below is an abstract from Working Paper No. 7 "Elections, Representations and the New Constitution", published by the Society for International Development (SID), Regional Office for East & Southern Africa. The author of this paper is Dr. Adams Oloo.  

"Elections are a very important aspect of democracy, any constitution should ensure that the electoral system is not only representative, but also inclusive. The old constitution had a number of factors that inhibited fair and inclusive representation. First, its electoral system, the First Past the Post System, facilitated candidates with minority votes being declared winners. Second, it did not say howmany constituencies there must be in the National Assembly leading to gerrymandering by ruling parties. Third, the old constitution did not have reserved seats for special groups such as women,the disabled and minorities. The new constitution has addressed some of these problems; however, we argue in this paper that more legislation onthe electoral system is needed, if Kenya’s electoral system is to be truly representative and inclusive.These include the adoption of a mixed electoralsystem and legislation on descriptive representation to ensure that all minorities have a voice in there presentative bodies."