47 people have been cleared by the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties to contest for the presidency as independent candidates in the August 9th elections.
The Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu says the 47 are among 7,111 independent candidates who are eyeing various political seats in the forthcoming elections.
Nderitu noted that there has been a significant rise in the number of independent candidates in this year’s elections compared to 2017, attributed to heightened political awareness among the candidates.
“The increase is mostly because of awareness as compared to previous polls. A majority of them did not participate in the party primaries; they started applying before the primaries,” Nderitu said on Monday.
The 7,111 independent candidates include 104 who are seeking the governor seat, senator (141), 110 for the woman representative position, 944 seeking the MP seat, while MCA candidates are 5,765 in number.
If the 47 independent presidential candidates are cleared to contest by Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), this year’s election will have the longest presidential ballot paper since the reintroduction of multi-party elections in 1992.
The 47 will be joined by other presidential candidates fielded by political parties, among them Raila Odinga of the Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition and Deputy President William Ruto, who is eyeing the presidency on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket.
When will the media tell us…
When will the media tell us about the other 45 candidates?
Give us the list. We want…
Give us the list. We want to know them.