From 210 MPs to 8 Provinces: How the Old Electoral System Worked

Before 2010, Kenya had no counties, no governors, no senators, and no women representatives. Just 8 provinces, 210 constituencies, and a president who needed only a simple plurality to win. Understanding the old system is essential to understanding why the 2007 election broke it.

When Kenyans voted in the 2007 general election, they were using an electoral system that had changed remarkably little since independence in 1963. The country was governed through a provincial administration system inherited from the colonial era. Power was concentrated at the centre. Provinces were administrative units run by appointed Provincial Commissioners, not elected leaders. There was no devolution, no county budgets, and no local democratic accountability beyond the constituency level.

This article explains how that system worked, how it compared to what Kenya has today, and why the 2007 crisis made reform inevitable.

The 8 Provinces

Kenya was divided into 8 provinces, each headed by a Provincial Commissioner (PC) appointed by the president. The provinces were:

1. Rift Valley Province: 49 constituencies — the largest province by both area and number of constituencies
2. Eastern Province: 36 constituencies — covering a vast stretch from Mt. Kenya to the Somalia border
3. Nyanza Province: 24 constituencies — stretching along Lake Victoria
4. Central Province: 29 constituencies — the densely populated Mt. Kenya region
5. Western Province: 24 constituencies — the smallest province by area
6. Coast Province: 21 constituencies — the Indian Ocean coastal strip
7. Nairobi Province: 8 constituencies — the capital city
8. North Eastern Province: 11 constituencies — vast but sparsely populated

Total: 210 constituencies. Each constituency elected one Member of Parliament. The MP was the only elected representative at the national level. There were no county assemblies, no ward representatives, and no elected governors.

The provincial system was deeply political. Presidents used PCs as political enforcers. Provincial boundaries often aligned with ethnic communities, making the provinces de facto ethnic territories. Central Province was predominantly Kikuyu. Nyanza was predominantly Luo. The Rift Valley was dominated by the Kalenjin. This made provincial voting patterns highly predictable — and made election disputes inherently ethnic.

How the Presidential Election Worked

Under the old constitution, a presidential candidate needed only a simple plurality — the most votes — to win. There was no 50%+1 threshold. There was no requirement to win 25% of votes in a certain number of provinces. A candidate could theoretically win the presidency with 30% of the vote if the other candidates split the remaining 70%.

This created a fundamental problem. In a multi-ethnic society where voting patterns followed ethnic lines, a simple plurality system meant that a president could be elected without broad national support. The winner just needed the largest ethnic coalition, not a national mandate.

In the 2007 election, Mwai Kibaki won with 46.4% of the vote. Under the current constitution, this would not be enough — he would have needed at least 50%+1. Under the old rules, having more votes than any other single candidate was sufficient.

Additionally, there were no term limits in the original constitution. Daniel arap Moi served as president for 24 years (1978-2002). The 2010 constitution imposed a two-term limit of five years each.

Old System vs New System: A Comparison

The 2010 Constitution transformed Kenya's electoral architecture. Here is a side-by-side comparison:

The scale of change is staggering. Under the old system, Kenyans elected 210 MPs plus 1 president at the national level. Under the new system, they elect approximately 1,882 representatives at national and county levels (290 MPs + 47 senators + 47 women reps + 47 governors + 1,450 MCAs + 1 president). That is a ninefold increase in elected positions.

The 2005 Referendum: The Beginning of the End

The old system's demise began not in 2007 but in 2005, during the constitutional referendum. President Kibaki proposed a new draft constitution. Raila Odinga and his allies opposed it, campaigning with an orange symbol (the ballot had an orange for "No" and a banana for "Yes").

The "No" side won decisively with 57% of the vote. The orange became a powerful political symbol. Raila's alliance evolved into the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which he rode into the 2007 presidential race. The referendum proved that Kenyans wanted fundamental change, and it showed that Kibaki could be defeated at the ballot box.

The irony is that the 2007 election, which the old system could not handle fairly, ultimately created the political will to adopt the very constitution Kibaki had unsuccessfully proposed in a different form. The 2010 Constitution that finally passed with 67% approval was far more transformative than either the 2005 draft or anything that came before it.

Why the Old System Failed in 2007

The 2007 election exposed fatal weaknesses in the old system:

1. No credible dispute resolution. With a simple plurality system and an electoral commission that could not verify its own results, there was no institutional mechanism to resolve a close, disputed election.
2. Centralised power created winner-take-all stakes. Without devolution, losing the presidency meant losing everything. This raised the stakes of every election to existential levels for communities that identified with particular candidates.
3. Provincial boundaries mapped onto ethnic boundaries. The provincial system reinforced rather than bridged ethnic divisions. Each province was effectively an ethnic territory, making elections into inter-ethnic competitions.
4. No separation of powers at the sub-national level. Without governors, county assemblies, or meaningful local government, there was no democratic outlet for local political energy.

The 2007 crisis, the subsequent National Accord, and the reform process that followed led to the 2010 Constitution — the most transformative legal document in Kenya's independent history. For the complete story of that journey, read From Violence to Reform: How 2007 Led to Kenya's New Constitution. For a detailed look at the modern electoral structure, see The Complete Guide to Kenya's Electoral Structure.

What This Pattern Means for 2027

Historical election numbers are most useful when they are turned into field actions. For From 210 MPs to 8 Provinces: How the Old Electoral System Worked, your campaign can use this history to decide where to invest agents, transport, and voter mobilisation before election day.

• Set target turnout by ward: Use past turnout as your baseline, then assign a realistic uplift target for each ward and polling centre.
• Track strongholds hour by hour: If turnout in your core areas is below plan by midday, deploy rapid mobilisation teams early, not late.
• Protect evidence quality: Keep a clean chain of results forms, incident notes, and station-level logs to support legal review if needed.

For primary reference material, review the IEBC official resources, Kenya Law election jurisprudence, and the IEBC election regulations.

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