Kenya's progressive march to democracy must be protected at all costs

Kenyans wait in a voting queue ready to cast their vote in the 2017 General Election. [File, Standard]

Kenya's journey to becoming a properly democratic society has been a mixed bag of fortunes from when Africans began advocating for the right to vote during colonial times to the struggle for independence, post-independence and the new Constitution.

Many observers consider Kenya's democracy more mature than others in Africa, perhaps because of the peaceful transfer of power and the relative robustness of our institutions. However, even though Kenya officially became a one-party state in June 1982 through a constitutional amendment, Kenya became a one-party state when independence Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s Kenya People’s Union (KPU) was banned in October 1969.