Representation at the House of Representatives

The country’s Constitution provided for the delimitation of constituencies so as to facilitate the conduct of elections in newly-independent Kenya. Chapter IV -  Parliament, Part 1 - Composition of Parliament, excerpts:

49. (1) For the purpose of elections of Elected Members of the House of Representatives, Kenya shall ........ be divided into such number of constituencies (not being more than 130 or less than 110) .......

At that time, the determination of electoral units in Kenya started with creation of 117 Constituencies based on a clearly established principle that all constituencies contain as nearly as possible an equal number of inhabitants (leading to some really expansive ones). It also provided that no constituency could cut across any two of the 7 administrative Regions to which Kenya was divided:

(2) ........ no constituency shall form part of more than one Region or of both the Nairobi Area and a Region.
(3) All constituencies shall contain as nearly equal numbers of inhabitants as appears to the Commission to be reasonable and practicable, but the Commission may depart from this principal to such extent as it considers expedient in order to take account of: (a) the density of population and in particular, the need to ensure adequate representation of urban and sparsely-populated rural areas; (b) means of communication; (c) geographical features; (d) community of interest; and (e) boundaries of existing administrative areas.

The 7 administrative Regions, which later came to be known as Provinces, were Western, Nyanza, Rift-Valley, Eastern, North-Eastern, Central, and Coast. The constitution at independence provided for 41 Districts which formed the basis of geographic representation at the Senate. These were based on ethnic considerations as opposed to majority rule tenets. "In 1962, immediately preceding independence, the Regional Boundaries Commission divided Kenya on the basis of either ethnic homogeneity, i.e. one tribe per district, or compatibility, i.e. more than one tribe per district or province where they were happy to coexist. The Commission recommended the eight provinces and 41 districts which were the basis for Kenya's administration in the 1992 elections" (Fox, 1996).

Indeed, the Commissioners' report did not conceal its rational of delimitation, which clearly went against Article 49. (3) of the 1962 Constitution, as shown above: "In certain cases strong tribal affinities or a close community of interest have induced us to delimit constituencies well below what might be considered the mean figure for a constituency, having regard to the total population of the country." (Maxon, 2009).

At that time, Parliament (then known as the National Assembly), was made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Excerpts:

34. (2) The National Assembly shall comprise 2 Houses, that is to say, a Senate and a House of Representatives.

The House of Representatives had 117 directly elected members known as MPs representing the 117 geographic constituencies (as delineated by the Electoral Commission) and a further 12 nominated members. Excerpts from Article 39 of the 1963 Constitution:

39. (1) The number of Specially Elected Members of the House of Representative shall be the number which results from dividing the number of seats of Elected Members of that House by ten or, if that result is not a whole number, the whole number next greater than the result. 

These Specially Elected Members were elected by the Elected Members of the House of Representatives:

(2) The Specially Elected Members of the House of Representatives shall be elected by the Elected Members of that House in accordance with the provisions of Schedule 6 of this Constitution.

For purposes of clarity, it is important at this juncture, to make mention of the fact that local units of representation existed through which the people of Kenya elected Members of the Wards to represent them at the local Councils. It is also at the Ward level of representation that citizens from minority language groups had the best chances for representation. These local councils were semi-autonomous and largely concerned themselves with service provision.

The next eight tables give the breakdown of the 117 Constituencies by Region and District for a better perspective.

Table 1.1 Central Region

Table 1.2 Coast Region

Table 1.3 Eastern Region

Table 1.4 Nairobi

Table 1.5 North-Eastern Region

Table 1.6 Nyanza Region

Table 1.7 Rift-Valley Region

Table 1.8 Western Region

The MPs were then known as Constituency Members and met as the House of Representatives. All had equal weight of vote. Looking back, the 117 constituencies of the 41 Districts made for uneven representation. For example, the vast but sparsley populated Kajiado Constituency had one representative as did Lamu with a much smaller area and population. The House of Representatives had 12 Nominated Members of which only one came from the opposition KADU.