Electoral Reforms
Electoral laws
The statutes that govern how Kenya votes, and the regulations made under them — every one linked to Kenya Law's own text.
The legal foundation
The rulebook in six civic questions
Start with what you need to understand. Each answer points to the exact principal Act on Kenya Law; the regulations, rules and orders sit in the complete record below.
- 01 Who runs elections, and under what safeguards? How the electoral commission is constituted, governed and held to standards of independence, transparency and accountability. Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act · Cap. 7C
- 02 How are political parties formed and governed? Registration, membership, coalitions, party funding, internal governance and the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal. Political Parties Act · Cap. 7D
- 03 Who may fund a campaign, and how is spending controlled? Candidate, party and referendum campaign money: contributions, spending limits, records, reporting and enforcement. Election Campaign Financing Act · Cap. 7A
- 04 How is a vote run and challenged? The main election rulebook: voter registration, nominations, polling, counting, results and election petitions. Elections Act · Cap. 7
- 05 What election conduct can lead to penalties? Bribery, intimidation, interference with election material and other conduct that the law treats as an election offence. Election Offences Act · Cap. 66
- 06 What must a published election poll disclose? Rules for publishing electoral opinion polls, including timing and information about the poll's sponsor and method. Publication of Electoral Opinion Polls Act · Cap. 7B
- 2011 3 Acts, 0 notices
- 2012 1 Act, 5 notices
- 2013 1 Act, 0 notices
- 2016 1 Act, 0 notices
- 2017 0 Acts, 7 notices
- 2019 0 Acts, 2 notices
- 2021 0 Acts, 1 notice
How this electoral-law collection is scoped
Kenya Law is the authority for enacted law, and these 21 instruments are its rows. The same scope is used for the Bills page: an instrument belongs here if it governs an election to public office in Kenya or the regulation of political parties.
15 instruments matched the keywords and were excluded — why
A keyword scan finds anything with "election" in its title, including a professional body electing its own council. Each exclusion below is a category with a reason, not a single inconvenient row, and each is pinned by a test that also proves a neighbouring instrument survives it.
| Title contains | Why it is not electoral law |
|---|---|
| development fund | Constituency public finance, not electoral law |
| dairy industry | Delegates of an industry body, not a public election |
| medical practitioners and dentists | A professional board's own members |
| nurses ( | A professional council's own members |
| trade unions elections | A union's internal elections |
| human resource management professionals | A professional council's own members |
| medical laboratory technicians | A professional council's own members |
| national youth council | A statutory council's own members |
| supplies practitioners | A professional council's own members |
| car loan | Staff welfare of an electoral body, not electoral law |
| mortgage | Staff welfare of an electoral body, not electoral law |
| privileges and immunities | Diplomatic status of an organisation |
Deliberately kept: the East African Community Treaty instrument on electing members of the East African Legislative Assembly. Kenya's National Assembly elects those members, so it is an election to public office conducted by Parliament.
21 of 21 Kenya Law instruments shown, and 0 of 0 of the IEBC’s own published copies.
Download 21 instruments as CSV Exactly the rows shown above, each with the official record it came from.
Compare the official instruments 21 Kenya Law rows
Principal Acts
The statutes themselves, as enacted by Parliament.
| Instrument | Number | Year | Assented |
|---|---|---|---|
| Election Offences Act | Cap. 66 | 2016 | 13 Sep 2016 |
| Election Campaign Financing Act | Cap. 7A | 2013 | 24 Dec 2013 |
| Publication of Electoral Opinion Polls Act | Cap. 7B | 2012 | 15 Jun 2012 |
| Elections Act | Cap. 7 | 2011 | 27 Aug 2011 |
| Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act | Cap. 7C | 2011 | 5 Jul 2011 |
| Political Parties Act | Cap. 7D | 2011 | 27 Aug 2011 |
Subsidiary legislation
Regulations, rules and orders made under those Acts and gazetted as legal notices.
A legal notice is made and gazetted, not assented, so the blank in that column on the subsidiary table is correct rather than missing — 6 of the 6 principal Acts carry an assent date, and commencement is what a legal notice records. Every row links to Kenya Law's own text; where a consolidated revision exists, that is the text Kenya Law serves.