At Stake in this Election:        

• The office of the President of the Republic of Kenya 

Government Structure: 

• Chief of State: President Uhuru KENYATTA 

• Head of Government: President Uhuru KENYATTA 

• Assembly: Bicameral parliament consisting of the Senate with 67 seats and the National Assembly with 350 seats* 

*While the Assembly is made up of 349 seats, one is held for the Speaker, an ex-officio member, making a total of 350.  

Electoral System: 

• The President is elected by qualified majority vote. To be elected, a candidate must win at least half of the votes cast in the election nationwide, in addition to winning at least 25% of the votes cast in 24 of Kenya’s 47 counties. If no candidate wins in the first round of the election, a run-off between the top two candidates will be held within 30 days. 

• 290 members of the National Assembly are directly elected in single-seat constituencies by a simple majority vote. 47 women are directly elected in single-seat constituencies by a simple majority vote. 12 members are nominated by political parties in the Assembly to represent youth and those with disabilities. All members serve 5-year terms. 

• 47 members of the Senate are directly elected in single-seat constituencies by a simple majority vote. 16 seats are held by women nominated by political parties based on their elected proportion. 4 seats are nominated by the National Assembly to represent youth and the disabled. All members serve 5-year terms. 

Main Candidates in this Election:  

• Raila ODINGA 

• Party: Azimio la Umoja 

• William RUTO 

  • Party: United Democratic Alliance (UDA) 

• George WAJACKOYAH 

• Party: Roots Party 

• David Waihiga MWAURE,  

  • Party: Agano Party 

Population and Registered Voters: 

• Population: 55,864,655 (2022 est.)¹ 

• Registered Voters: 22,120,458 (2022) 

Gender Data: 

• Female Population: 26,777,838 (2020 est.)² 

• CEDAW: Ratified (by accession) 09 March 1984³ 

• Gender Quota: Yes, each body has seats reserved for women. Additionally, each party must not be more than 2/3 of one gender.⁴ 

• Female Candidates in this election: No 

• Number of Female Legislators: 75 out of 350 in the National Assembly (21.4%); 21 out of 68 in the Senate (30.9%)⁵ 

• Human Development Index (HDI) Position: Rank 143 at 0.601⁶ 

• Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: Medium at 0.2157 (2014)⁷ 

Disability Data: 

• Is Kenya a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)⁸ 

• Has Kenya ratified CRPD: Yes (19 May 2008)⁹ 

• Population with a disability: 6,767,279 (2022 est.)¹⁰ 

IFES Resources: 

• Does IFES have a presence in Kenya: Yes, Field Office¹¹ 

• Election Judgements: Yes, 3¹² 

• Election FAQs: Yes¹³ 

 

1. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/kenya/#people-and-society 

2. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/kenya/#people-and-society 

3. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?Treaty=CEDAW&Lang=en 

4. https://www.idea.int/data-tools/data/gender-quotas/country-view/156/35

5. https://data.ipu.org/women-ranking?month=6&year=2022

6. https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/specific-country-data#/countries/KEN

7. https://www.genderindex.org/country/kenya-2014-results/

8. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?Treaty=CEDAW&Lang=en

9. https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?Treaty=CEDAW&Lang=en

10. http://electionaccess.org/en/resources/countries/?q=kenya#tab 

11. https://www.ifes.org/kenya

12. https://electionjudgments.org/en/library/?q=(allAggregations:!f,filters:(country:(values:!(ckac0l6wki7))),from:0,includeUnpublished:!f,limit:30,order:desc,sort:creationDate,types:!(%275bfbb1a0471dd0fc16ada146%27),unpublished:!f)

13. https://www.ifes.org/faqs/elections-kenya-2022-general-elections