The politics of Kenya take place in a framework of a presidential republic, whereby the president is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system in accordance with a new constitution passed in 2010.
The Kenya African National Union (KANU) is a Kenyan political party that ruled for nearly 40 years after Kenya's independence from British colonial rule in 1963 until its electoral loss in 2002. It was known as Kenya African Union (KAU) from 1944 but due to pressure from the colonial government, KAU changed its name to Kenya African Study Union (KASU) mainly because all political parties were banned in 1939 following the start of the Second World War. In 1946 KASU rebranded itself into KAU following the resignation of Harry Thuku as president due to internal differences between the moderates who wanted peaceful negotiations and the militants who wanted to use force, the latter forming the Aanake a forty, which later became the Mau Mau. His post was then occupied by James Gichuru, who stepped down for Jomo Kenyatta in 1947 as president of KAU. The KAU was banned by the colonial government from 1952 to 1960. It was re-established by James Gichuru in 1960 and renamed KANU on 14 May 1960 after a merger with Tom Mboya's Kenya Independence Movement.
The National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) is a political party in Kenya. As an alliance, it was in power from 2002 and 2005 when it collapsed due to disagreements between members over a constitutional referendum.
Emilio Stanley Mwai Kibaki was a Kenyan politician who served as the third President of Kenya from December 2002 until April 2013. He served in various leadership positions in Kenya's government including being the longest serving Member of Parliament (MP) in Kenya from 1963 to 2013.
Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka is a Kenyan politician who was the tenth Vice-President of Kenya from 2008 to 2013. Musyoka served in the government under the late President Daniel arap Moi as the Secretary of Kenya African National Union party (1980-1988), Assistant Minister for Works (1986-1988), Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly (1988-1992), Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1993 until 1998, Minister of Education (1998-2001); and subsequently, under the late President Mwai Kibaki, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs again from 2003 to 2004, then Minister of the Environment from 2004 to 2005. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2007 presidential election, after which he was appointed vice-president by Kibaki in January 2008.
The Liberal Democratic Party was a political party in Kenya. It was established by Raila Odinga and members of the National Rainbow Coalition in 2002.
Chirau Ali Mwakwere is a Kenyan politician and diplomat. He served as the Foreign Minister of Kenya from June 2004 to December 2005, and then became transport minister in December 2005, when serious problems within the National Rainbow Coalition caused a cabinet reshuffle. As a young man he became well-educated and entered government service in 1967, serving as an ambassador to several countries and also in several domestic positions, including education. He was a member of the Kenya African National Union until 2002, rising to the rank of deputy leader, but he left to join the new opposition National Rainbow Coalition which won the 2002 elections. He is a Muslim and enjoys playing golf.
Forum for the Restoration of Democracy–Kenya (FORD–Kenya) is a Kenyan political party. The party has sat in the government of Kenya once, under the National Rainbow Coalition, from 2003 to 2007, having ended forty years of one party rule. In April 2022, the party joined the Kenya Kwanza coalition for the August 2022 elections, and is headed by Moses Wetangula, the current speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya. The party tends to be more popular among the Luhya people.
Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi is a Kenyan politician and land economist who is currently serving as Prime Cabinet Secretary of Kenya, and since 2023, in an expanded role of Foreign & Diaspora Affairs Minister of Kenya. He is a former party leader of the Amani National Congress (ANC), one of the founding political parties, of the Kenya Kwanza alliance.
Kiraitu Murungi is a Commissioner at the Kenya Law Reform Commission and the former governor of Meru County in Kenya. He is a former long-serving member of parliament for South Imenti constituency (1992-2013), former cabinet minister, and former senator for Meru County.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a centre-left political party in Kenya. It is the successor of a grassroots people's movement that was formed during the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum campaign. This movement separated in August 2007 into the Orange Democratic Movement Party of Kenya and the Wiper Democratic Movement – Kenya.
Charity Kaluki Ngilu is a Kenyan politician and the second governor elected for Kitui County. She unsuccessfully vied to be President of the Republic of Kenya in 1997. She served as Minister for Health from 2003 until 2007 and Minister of Water and Irrigation from April 2008 to 2013. She also served as Cabinet Secretary for Land, Housing and Urban Development from 2013 until 2015.
Martha Wangari Karua is a Kenyan politician. She is a former long-standing member of parliament for Gichugu Constituency and an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She was Minister for Justice until resigning from that position in April 2009. She has consistently fought for the protection of women's rights and improvements to the democratic process.
The Wiper Democratic Movement–Kenya (WDM-K), formerly Orange Democratic Movement–Kenya (ODM–Kenya), is a political party in Kenya, which originated as a result of the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum. The party tends to be more popular among the Kamba people. It is headed by Kalonzo Musyoka, who ran for president in 2007 and served as the vice-president in the Grand Coalition of Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga. He is now a member of the main opposition Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Party.
General elections were held in Kenya on 27 December 2002. Voters elected the President, and members of the National Assembly. They coincided with the 2002 Kenyan local elections.
The Party of National Unity (PNU) is a political party in Kenya originally founded as a political coalition. On 16 September 2007, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki announced the party's formation and declared that he would run as its presidential candidate in the December 2007 Kenyan elections. Following the conditions set by the Political Parties Act which were passed in Kenya in 2008, PNU became an official political party. Recently PNU has launched activities to revamp itself ahead of the 2022 general elections.
General elections were held in Kenya on 27 December 2007. Voters elected the President, and members of the National Assembly. They coincided with the 2007 Kenyan local elections.
The 9th Parliament of the Republic of Kenya was opened by elected President Mwai Kibaki on February 18, 2003. It was the first time that the formerly-dominant Kenya African National Union of Daniel arap Moi was in the minority. The triumphant NARC, which dominated in the general elections of 2002 was in the majority, led by Kibaki.
Gideon Musyoka Ndambuki is a Kenyan politician. He has been the Kaiti Constituency MP since 1997 when the constituency was established, and was a minister between 1998 and 2002. At the 1997 and 2002 elections he won the seat representing the KANU party, but represented the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya at the 2007 Kenyan parliamentary election. He unsuccessfully vied for the Makueni County Senate seat during Wiper Democratic Party nominations in the run-up to the 2013 General Elections in Kenya. Educated in the US, he was an employee of the Commercial Bank of Africa in the 1980s, and more controversially, Managing Director of Trade Bank between 1986 and its collapse in 1993.
The National Alliance (TNA) was a political party in Kenya. It took on its current identity when Uhuru Kenyatta assumed control and renamed it as the vehicle for his 2012 presidential campaign.
