Constituents unrepresented as electoral gaps persist

Several constituencies and one county have remained without representation in Parliament for months, despite the Constitution requiring that by-elections be conducted whenever such seats fall vacant.

Banisa, Magarini, Mbeere North, Ugunja, Malava, and Kasipul constituencies are yet to get replacements for their Members of Parliament (MPs), while Baringo County continues to go unrepresented in the Senate.

Banisa Member of Parliament Kullow Maalim Hassan died while undergoing treatment at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi on Saturday, March 25, 2023.

The second-term lawmaker succumbed to his injuries while in the hospital's ICU after he was involved in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident near Capital Centre in South B.

Magarini seat fell vacant on March 3, 2023, after the High Court Judge Alfred Mabeya nullified his election on the grounds that irregularities, including ballot stuffing, had affected the final results.

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Harrison Kombe (ODM) had won the election with 11,946 votes against his closest rival, Stanley Kenga Karisa (UDA), who garnered 11,925 votes.

The appointment of Opiyo Wandayi as Cabinet Secretary for Energy by President William Ruto in July last year led the Ugunja seat in Siaya County to remain vacant.

In this scenario, constitutional provisions and potential implications come into play.

According to Section 13, Article VI of the Constitution, MPs cannot hold other government offices during their term without forfeiting their seat.

The constitution mandates the Speaker to issue in writing a declaration of a vacancy in a constituency within 21 days of the occurrence of a vacancy by giving a notice to the IEBC.

The IEBC is then mandated to conduct a by-election that must be held to fill the vacant seat within 90 days.

In Malava and Kasipul, seats were declared vacant after the area MPs, Malulu Injendi and Charles Ong’ondo Were died in office.

Injendi died on February 18, 2025, while undergoing treatment at Nairobi Hospital, while Ong’ondo was shot dead on Ngong road, Nairobi by gunmen on a motorcycle in a suspected assassination on April 30.

The Senate seat in Baringo fell vacant after the death of the sitting Senator William Cheptumo on February 16 while undergoing treatment at Nairobi Hospital.

Another individual also key to stand out is nominated MP John Mbadi.

IEBC provides that if a nominated MP leaves office, the party to which the MP belonged must then write to the IEBC notifying them of the vacancy.

The IEBC is then mandated to pick from their existing list of nominees the next in number to occupy the seat.