The 2017 presidential election provided a test of whether Kenya's reformed institutions could handle a bitterly contested election and dispute. The election was held on August 8, 2017, with incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga as the primary candidates. Uhuru initially won with 54.3 percent of the vote, but Raila challenged the election in the Supreme Court, alleging irregularities including tampering with the transmission system and discrepancies in the final tally. On August 25, 2017, the Supreme Court annulled the election, finding that the election process had not been conducted in substantial compliance with constitutional requirements. This historic decision was unprecedented in African history; no court had previously annulled a sitting president's election.
The Supreme Court decision validated the 2010 Constitution's institutional reforms, particularly judicial independence. The court had acted without apparent executive pressure to overturn the president's election. The decision demonstrated that Kenya had finally developed an institution capable of checking executive power on behalf of constitutional norms. However, the decision also triggered political instability. Uhuru rejected the court's decision as "judicial activism," and his coalition refused to cooperate with a rerun election. Raila, emboldened by the court victory, began organizing demonstrations calling for accountability and reform before a rerun. The period between August 25 and October 26 (the rerun date) was tense, with sporadic violence in informal settlements and concern that the political crisis could escalate.
The rerun election on October 26, 2017, proceeded with Raila boycotting. The boycott was unprecedented; a major presidential candidate declining to contest the rerun was itself a form of election dispute. Uhuru won the rerun with 98 percent of the vote (reflecting the opposition boycott), a landslide that validated his position while also highlighting the electoral process's legitimacy deficit due to the boycott. The rerun proceeded peacefully from a violence standpoint, though sporadic killings were reported in opposition areas. International observers noted that the 2017 elections (including the annulment and rerun) had demonstrated Kenya's institutional capacity to manage electoral crises without complete state collapse, a significant achievement compared to 2007.
However, the 2017 election cycle also revealed vulnerabilities. Violence during the period between annulment and rerun killed approximately 100 people, less than 2007-08 but significant nonetheless. The violence was concentrated in Nairobi and Kisumu (Luo areas), with Raila supporters clashing with police and with Kikuyu youth. Police responses included extrajudicial killings, estimated at 50+ deaths. The violence suggested that ethnic tensions and latent potential for violence remained elevated despite constitutional reform and the 2013 peaceful election. The 2017 violence also revealed that institutional reform (courts nullifying elections) could itself trigger violence if the outcome was perceived as unjust by losing parties' supporters.
The long-term political impact of 2017 was the March 9, 2018 "handshake" between Uhuru and Raila, an informal reconciliation that presaged the next major constitutional reform effort (the Building Bridges Initiative, ultimately defeated in court). The handshake represented a recognition by both leaders that continued confrontation was costly and that some form of elite settlement was preferable to ongoing political tension. By that logic, the 2017 election's resolution (court nullification, rerun, handshake) had prevented renewed large-scale violence, even though the path to that outcome had been contentious.
See Also
The Handshake 2018 New IEBC 2010 Constitution 2013 Election Echo Impunity
Sources
- International Crisis Group. "Kenya's 2017 Elections: A More Competitive Race." Africa Report No. 246, August 2017. Available at https://www.crisisgroup.org/
- Kenya Supreme Court. "Judgment of the Supreme Court in the Petition Challenging the Election of the President." Nairobi, August 2017. Available at https://www.supremecourt.go.ke/
- Carter Center. "Observing Kenya's 2017 General Elections and Rerun Election." Atlanta, 2017. Available at https://www.cartercenter.org/