Two petitions have been filed before Senators seeking changes to Kenya’s electoral laws, including allowing candidates to use popular or commonly known names on ballot papers and limiting nominated MCAs to one term.
The petitions were tabled before the Senate Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs, and Human Rights on Thursday.
In the first petition, Mohamed Alasow asked the Senate to reintroduce the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which had proposed that candidates’ popular or commonly known names appear on ballot papers alongside their official names.
The petitioner argued that voters, particularly those in rural and marginalized areas, often recognize candidates by their popular names rather than their official names. He said the gap between the two sets of names could lead to confusion, mistaken identity, and rejected ballots during elections.
Committee chairperson Senator Wakili Hillary Sigei said the current legal framework already sets out a process for people to change or regularize their names before they stand for election. He added that contesting an election follows a planned timeline and that candidates have sufficient time to complete any necessary name changes ahead of nominations and polling.
Sigei said, “A decision to contest an election does not arise all of a sudden. Anyone who intends to vie and wishes to change or regularize their name has sufficient time and existing legal avenues under our laws to do so before nomination and election time.”
The Committee also noted that similar proposals on allowing candidates to use popular names on ballot papers were tabled during the 12th Parliament, but they failed to pass into law before the parliamentary term ended.
Members further weighed concerns raised by stakeholders, who warned that including popular names on ballot papers could disrupt consistency in the electoral process, increase costs, and create uncertainty, especially if candidates adopted temporary or politically influenced names.
The second petition, filed by Laban Omusundi and others, calls for legislation that would restrict nominated MCAs to a single term.
The petitioners argued that repeated nominations could transform affirmative action positions into political rewards, rather than opportunities designed to improve representation.
Makueni Senator Daniel Maanzo opposed the proposal, saying political parties should retain the power to prepare party lists and select nominees. He said, “Nominations should be left to political parties. A one-term limit may sound attractive, but it can create practical and constitutional difficulties, especially where parties are trying to balance representation for women, youth, and persons with disabilities.”
Kisumu Senator Tom Ojienda also challenged the idea, asking why nominated members should face term limits when elected representatives do not. He argued that reforms should focus on strengthening nomination procedures within political parties instead of targeting a specific category of leaders.
“If the law limits only nominated MCAs while elected members face no equivalent restriction, then we must confront the question of equality and non-discrimination. Any reform should address nomination procedures through political parties rather than unfairly targeting one category of members,” Ojienda said.
The Committee is now expected to prepare draft reports on both petitions after members indicated that the current legal framework largely meets the requirements and that nomination decisions should remain within the constitutional and statutory mandate of political parties.
