Democracy in Tanzania and Kenya

1A court that cancelled an election

On 1 September 2017 the Supreme Court of Kenya did something no court in Africa had done before: it annulled a presidential election, ruling by four judges to two that the electoral commission had not conducted the August vote in accordance with the Constitution, and ordered a new one within 60 days. Both the winner and the loser of the original count accepted that the court had the final word. Kenya and Tanzania, Rwanda's partners in the East African Community, have each travelled from one-party rule to multiparty politics, by different roads. Figure 4 sets them side by side.

Figure 4. Key steps in the political history of Tanzania and Kenya. Rows are in date order, not to scale. Drawn by Ganzaa.

2Tanzania: from one-party democracy to multiparty politics

Under Julius Nyerere, TANU argued that a single national party, open to all citizens and holding competitive elections between its own candidates, suited a new and poor nation better than rival parties, which might divide it along ethnic or regional lines. Tanzania became a one-party state in 1965; in 1977 TANU merged with Zanzibar's Afro-Shirazi Party to form Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and a new Constitution was adopted. Swahili as a national language and the policy of ujamaa helped to build a strong national identity.

Nyerere retired as president in 1985, an unusual peaceful handover at the time. In 1991 a presidential commission led by Chief Justice Francis Nyalali consulted the public; although most respondents preferred to keep one party, it recommended multiparty politics, and the Constitution was amended in 1992. The first multiparty general elections followed in 1995. Presidents have been limited to two five-year terms; in 2021 Samia Suluhu Hassan became the first woman to hold the office. Zanzibar has its own president and House of Representatives, and after a referendum in 2010 adopted a government of national unity. The Constitution reserves special seats for women in Parliament. CCM has won every general election since 1995; opposition parties and observers have at times raised concerns about political freedoms, while the government has stressed stability and national unity.

3Kenya: from one-party rule to a new Constitution

KANU became the only active party in 1969, and in 1982 an amendment made Kenya a one-party state by law. Pressure from churches, lawyers, opposition politicians and donors led to the repeal of that amendment in December 1991, and multiparty elections were held in December 1992. In 2002 an opposition coalition won the election and power passed peacefully from KANU for the first time.

The disputed presidential election of December 2007 was followed by violence in which more than a thousand people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. A mediation led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan produced a National Accord and a power-sharing government in February 2008, and a programme of reform. Its central result was a new Constitution, approved in a referendum and promulgated on 27 August 2010. It added a strong Bill of Rights, created the Supreme Court and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), restored a Senate, and devolved power to 47 counties, each with an elected governor and assembly; it also limits presidents to two five-year terms and reserves a seat for a woman representative from every county.

The 2017 annulment and the court's upholding of the 2022 presidential result show the role of the courts in settling electoral disputes. Challenges remain, including the cost of elections and the Constitution's unmet rule that no more than two thirds of elected members of public bodies may be of the same gender.