Electoral Reforms · The story

Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act No 7 of 1982

1982 · Independence and one-party rule

Source date
1982
Event type
Law or amendment
Reform area
Political competition

30-second brief

The essential point

Draft: an editor has not checked this summary yet. Every statement below still shows the official record it came from.

In 1982, Act No. 7 amended Kenya’s Constitution by introducing section 2A, which limited the country to one political party, KANU. That provision remained until Act No. 12 repealed it in December 1991 and restored multiparty politics.

Evidence: Supreme Court judgment, paragraph 464

Why it matters

Section 2A placed the one-party limit in the Constitution until its repeal in December 1991.

Evidence: Supreme Court judgment, paragraph 464

Open the key points and evidence

  1. The source identifies the amending law as Act No. 7 of 1982.

    Supreme Court judgment, paragraph 464

  2. The amendment introduced section 2A of the Constitution.

    Supreme Court judgment, paragraph 464

  3. Section 2A limited Kenya to one political party, KANU.

    Supreme Court judgment, paragraph 464
Full recordAccount and consequence

Official-source wording

What the official record says

For instance, the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act No 7 of 1982 expressly introduced the provision of section 2A that limited the country to only one political party, Kenya African National Union. It was only in December 1991 through the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act No 12 of 1991 that this section 2A was repealed reinstating multi-partism in Kenya.

Verbatim excerpt · Supreme Court judgment, paragraph 464 · Attorney General v Ndii — Supreme Court judgment

The bigger picture

How this change connects

Solid line: an explicit official-record link. Dotted line: labelled Mzalendo analysis.

  1. 1967 Kenya Became a De Facto One Party State
    Preceded
    1982 Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act No 7 of 1982

    Post-independence Kenya became a de facto one party state in 1967 but matters changed substantially in 1982, when parliament passed a law to make it legally so

    Official link · View official evidence

  2. 1991 The Constitution Was Amended in 1991 to Allow for the Country to Revert to Political Pluralism
    Superseded
    1982 Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act No 7 of 1982

    It was only in December 1991 through the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Act No 12 of 1991 that this section 2A was repealed reinstating multi-partism in Kenya.

    Official link · View official evidence

Evidence stack

Sources behind this record

  1. Attorney General v Ndii — Supreme Court judgmentSupreme Court judgment, paragraph 464 · Official Kenyan public authority · admitted for public claims