The political framework of Kenya

Political Outline

Current Political Leaders: President: President William Ruto (since 13 September 2022)
Vice President: Rigathi Gachagua (since 13 September 2022)
Next Election Dates: Presidential: August 2027
National Assembly: August 2027
Main Political Parties: The main active parties in Kenya include:

- United Democratic Alliance (UDA): liberal conservatism, centre-right. It is the current ruling party
- Amani National Congress (ANC): social-liberalism
- Forum For Restoration of Democracy-Kenya (FORD-Kenya): centre-left, social democracy
- Orange Democratic Movement (ODM): centre-left, promotes social democracy. It is currently the main opposition party
- Jubilee Party: centre-right to right-wing
- Economic Freedom Party (EFP): left-wing
- Wiper Democratic Movement–Kenya (WDM-K): centre-left, social democracy
- Kenya African National Union (KANU): centre-right, nationalist; it ruled for nearly 40 years after Kenya's independence.
Executive Power: The executive power consists of the President, who is directly elected for a five-year term (and can serve for a maximum of two terms), an elected Vice President and the Cabinet (subject to confirmation by the National Assembly). The President is the head of state and government, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and also chairs the National Security Council.
Legislative Power: The legislature consists of the National Assembly (350 seats, with 290 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies through a simple majority vote. Additionally, 47 women in single-seat constituencies are elected by a simple majority vote. Moreover, 12 members are nominated by the National Assembly, including 6 representing youth and 6 representing the disabled, alongside one Assembly speaker. Members of the assembly serve 5-year terms) and the Senate (68 seats, with 47 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies through a simple majority vote, and 20 members directly elected through proportional representation vote. Among the directly elected members, there are 16 women, 2 representing youth, 2 representing the disabled, and one Senate speaker. Members of parliament serve 5-year terms). The National Assembly has control over the nation's expenditure and the distribution of revenue between the two levels of government. The Senate represents the country's 47 counties and serves their interests and those of county governments.

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

The world rankings, published annually, measures violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position are assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire incorporating the main criteria (44 in total) to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. This questionnaire was sent to partner organisations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).

World Rank:: 102/180

Indicator of Political Freedom

Definition

Definition:

The Indicator of Political Freedom provides an annual evaluation of the state of freedom in a country as experienced by individuals. The survey measures freedom according to two broad categories: political rights and civil liberties. The ratings process is based on a checklist of 10 political rights questions (on Electoral Process, Political Pluralism and Participation, Functioning of Government) and 15 civil liberties questions (on Freedom of Expression, Belief, Associational and Organizational Rights, Rule of Law, Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights). Scores are awarded to each of these questions on a scale of 0 to 4, where a score of 0 represents the smallest degree and 4 the greatest degree of rights or liberties present. The total score awarded to the political rights and civil liberties checklist determines the political rights and civil liberties rating. Each rating of 1 through 7, with 1 representing the highest and 7 the lowest level of freedom, corresponds to a range of total scores.

Ranking:: Partly Free
Political Freedom:: 4/7

Political freedom in the world (interactive map)
Source: Freedom in the World Report, Freedom House

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