The Republic of Kenya is a unitary State. Kenya won its independence from British colonial rule on 12 December 1963. The country has a multi-party political system whose hallmark is parliamentary democracy. The core of the system is a National Assembly or Parliament. This is a unicameral House consisting of 210 directly elected members (Member of Parliament - MP), and 12 members nominated proportionally by political parties represented in Parliament. In addition to these, there are two ex-officio members - the Speaker and the Attorney General. The MPs serve a 5-year term in Parliament.

The President of the Republic of Kenya, the Prime Minister together with the Vice-President and the Cabinet Ministers comprise the executive. The President appoints both the Vice-President and the Cabinet including one Deputy Prime Minister. The Coalition Government formed after the contested 2007 General Elections created the position of Prime Minister being the leader of the party with most Members of Parliament and with the powers to appoint half of the Cabinet and one of the Deputy Prime Ministers. The President is elected directly for a 5-year term. In order to win, a candidate must get majority vote with at least 25% of the votes cast in at least 5 of the country’s 8 provinces.

Since independence in 1963, the National Assembly has progressively made amendments to the Constitution. These changes have been aimed at strengthening the democratic system by guaranteeing the freedom of expression and free and fair elections, amongst other things. In September 1997 for instance, the Assembly passed legislation, which prohibited detention without trial. The Assembly also ensures that during general elections, all political parties get equal access to the media. Furthermore, all parties, including those in the opposition have the right to nominate members for the 12 seats reserved for nominated MPs. A party that secures seats that guarantee it to nominate MPs do so in proportion to the actual number of National Assembly seats it holds.

All the above measures are engraved in the Constitution. As a result of this, parliamentary politics in Kenya is an open, free, fair and highly competitive. Kenya has indeed held all its general elections - presidential, parliamentary, and local authorities every 5 years as required by the Constitution, without fail since the country attained independence in 1963.