Alternatives for electoral reform in Kenya: Lessons from southern Africa

Abstract

In presenting its review of the conduct of the 2007 Kenyan elections, the Kriegler Commission put forward suggestions for electoral reform. The present contribution discusses these alternatives, for both parliamentary and presidential elections, against the background of experience of electoral reform in South Africa and Lesotho. Arguing about the need for electoral reform to change electoral incentives in order to de-emphasise political mobilisation around ethnicity, it stresses the advantages of a shift towards mixed-member proportional election or list system Proportional Representation. Such systems would move away from the winner-take-all logic of the presently established first-past-the-post electoral system, and would provide incentives to politicians to compete for votes across ethnic boundaries. The virtues of a return to the pre-1992 system of indirect election of the president by parliament are also considered. Although it is recognised that wide-ranging reforms of Kenya's political institutions are required if the country's crisis is to be adequately addressed, it is suggested that some significant electoral reform is a necessity.