Kenya

J

Communications

Kenya has 4 daily newspapers with a combined circulation of around 263,000. Leading dailies include two English-language newspapers, the Daily Nation and The Standard, and a Swahili-language daily, Taifa Leo, all published in Nairobi. The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation operates radio and six television stations with English-, African-, and Asian-language programmes; there are also commercial radio and television stations. Kenya has a well-developed telecommunications system with around 8 telephones per 1,000 people, 7 million radios, and 767,530 television receivers.

V

Government

Kenya is governed under the constitution adopted at independence in 1963. Amendments enacted in 1964 made the country a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. It has a modified parliamentary form of government. The constitution was last amended in 1997.

A

Executive and Legislature

Executive authority in Kenya is exercised by a president—who is both chief of state and head of government—elected for a five-year term by popular vote. A vice-president and a Cabinet are appointed by the president from members of the unicameral National Assembly (Bunge), the legislative branch of government. The assembly consists of 210 directly elected members plus 12 members who are nominated by the president; the speaker and attorney-general are ex-officio members. Under a power-sharing agreement signed in 2008 a coalition government was formed and the newly created post of prime minister instituted.

B

Political Parties

The Kenya African National Union (KANU) was the nation’s sole legal political party from 1982 to 1991, though Kenya had, in practice, been a one-party state since 1969. The 2007 election saw President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity lose to the Orange Democratic Movement.

C

Judiciary

The Kenyan judicial system consists of two major courts and several lesser tribunals. The major courts are the Kenya court of appeal, with a chief justice and five associate judges; and the high court of Kenya, with seven judges. The lesser tribunals include the resident magistrates’ courts; the district magistrates courts; and the qadi courts, which determine questions of Islamic law.