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1961 Kenyan general election

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General elections were held in Kenya in February 1961. The result was a victory for the Kenya African National Union, which won 19 of the 53 elected seats.

Electoral system

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Twenty seats were reserved for minority communities; ten for whites, eight for Indians and two for Arabs. There were also twelve appointees.[1] Primary elections were held for the reserved seats by members of the respective communities, and candidates receiving at least 25% of the vote advanced to the main elections.[2]

Of the 1,411,117 registered voters, 29,879 (2.18%) were Indian, 19,332 (1.37%) white and 5,472 (0.38%) Arabs.[3]

Results

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Nine constituencies (with a total of 353,251 registered voters) were uncontested, reducing the number of actual voters to 1,057,866.[3]

PartyVotes%Seats
Kenya African National Union590,66167.5019
Kenya African Democratic Union143,07916.3511
Baluhya Political Union28,8173.291
New Kenya Party28,2843.234
Kenya Indian Congress10,4881.203
Kenya Coalition8,8911.023
Kenya Freedom Party5,2630.602
Kenya National Congress4,5610.520
Shungwaya Freedom Party3,7480.431
Coast People's Party1,6930.190
Tana River Pokomo Union6990.080
African independents13,9171.591
Arab independents5,7120.652
Asian Hindu independents4,6480.530
Asian Muslim independents11,8801.363
European independents12,7681.463
Appointed members12
Total875,109100.0065
Valid votes875,10998.91
Invalid/blank votes9,6781.09
Total votes884,787100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,057,86683.64
Source: Sternberger et al.

References

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  1. ^ Elections in Kenya African Election Database
  2. ^ Robert M. Maxon & Thomas P. Ofcansky (2014) Historical Dictionary of Kenya, Rowman & Littlefield, p202
  3. ^ a b Dolf Sternberger, Bernhard Vogel, Dieter Nohlen & Klaus Landfried (1978) Die Wahl der Parlamente: Band II: Afrika, Erster Halbband, p972