1961 Kenyan general election

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

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

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

Party	Votes	%	Seats
Kenya African National Union	590,661	67.5	19
Kenya African Democratic Union	143,079	16.3	11
Baluhya Political Union	28,817	3.3	1
New Kenya Party	28,284	3.2	4
Kenya Indian Congress	10,488	1.2	3
Kenya Coalition	8,891	1.0	3
Kenya Freedom Party	5,263	0.6	2
Kenya National Congress	4,561	0.5	0
Shungwaya Freedom Party	3,748	0.4	1
Coast People's Party	1,693	0.2	0
Tana River Pokomo Union	699	0.1	0
African independents	13,917	1.6	1
Arab independents	5,712	0.6	2
Asian Hindu independents	4,648	0.5	0
Asian Muslim independents	11,880	1.3	3
European independents	12,768	1.4	3
Appointed members	−	−	12
Invalid/blank votes	9,678	−	−
Total	884,787	100	65
Registered voters/turnout	1,057,866	83.6	−
Source: Sternberger et al

References

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