Political Parties Must Adhere to Two-Thirds Gender Rule, Commission Warns
 10th May 2022

Political Parties that failed to meet the two thirds gender principle in their nomination lists submitted to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) must hand in fresh lists by 11 May 2022 at 5.00pm or risk being locked out of the 9 August 2022 General Election.

The Commission declined to receive nomination lists from a number of political parties on April 28 2022, giving them up to Monday 9 May 2022 at 11.59pm to meet the rule or be disqualified. On 5 May 2022, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said 48 political parties that submitted lists of nominated candidates for the Senate and 38 others that submitted lists of nominated candidates for the National Assembly were compliant with the two-thirds gender principle.

Following the review of the resubmitted nomination lists on 9 May 2022, the Commission observed notable improvement in compliance. However, some Political Parties had not submitted their lists due to time constraints. Thus, the Commission has further revised the submission date to 12 May 2022. “In keeping with the provisions of Article 83 (3) of the Constitution, which stipulates that the conduct of elections should be facilitative, the Commission has extended the deadline to 12 May 2022 at 5pm,” observed Chebukati.

The Commission warned that should the political parties submit a nomination list that does not comply with the two-thirds gender requirement, it will reject the list. “Do note that a revised list that does not comply with the two-thirds gender principle, will be rejected in its totality and all candidates on the list cannot stand for Election on 9 August 2022,” said Chebukati.

The High Court in a Constitutional Petition No. 19 of 2017 in Katiba Institute vs Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission ordered that the Commission rejects any nomination list for members of the National Assembly and Senate that did not comply with the two-third gender principle.