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Vol 58 No 19

Published 22nd September 2017


Kenya

The incumbent never loses

No sitting president has ever lost an election in Kenya, but no such election has ever been annulled. What happens next will be rooted in the history of the alliances and splits in Kenya’s previous presidential polls

Founding President Jomo Kenyatta and his successor Daniel arap Moi ruled in turn from 1964 until 2002 under the umbrella of the Kenya African National Union, the party which brought Kenya to independence. During the one-party era, the President was never opposed (such hubris could have been fatal). With the restoration of multi-party democracy in December 1991, the opposition tried to dislodge Moi in 1992 and 1997, but failed, hamstrung by their internal divisions and nobbled by KANU’s dirty tricks. For another decade, KANU clung to power.

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