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Kenya: Presidential and general elections set for March 4
Outgoing Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki
East Africa’s largest economy, Kenya, goes to the polls on March 4 to elect a new president, elect new governors, and new legislators.
There are 8 candidates who will be competing to replace outgoing president Mwai Kibaki whose term comes to an end, and is prevented by the country’s constituition from seeking a 3rd term.
Mr. Kibaki has been president of Kenya since December 30, 2002. He has prioritized economic growth, infrastructure development and improved service delivery as the focus of his presidency.
According to the numbers from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of Kibaki’s first term in office in 2007, economic growth had increased to 7 percent annually; elementary education in all public schools in the country was and continues to be availed for free; and the number of public universities had increased.
During his second term, many of the infrastructure projects which were started during his first term have been completed.
A new constitution has been promulgated under his watch, and it introduced a series of reforms which shifted power from the executive to a number of independent institutions including the Judiciary, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, County Transition Authority (a federal system of government), National Police Service and the National Land Commission.
About 30 million Kenyans (out of a population of 41 million) are using mobile phones and more than 15 million had access to the Internet as at the end of 2012 from less than three million mobile phone subscribers and 250,000 who had access to the Internet in 2003.
