When presidential election petitions were unheard of in Kenya

Mwai Kibaki consults with his lawyers during the presidential petition in 1998. [File, Standard]

Presidential election petitions are a recent phenomena in Kenya's political landscape. This is partly because of Kenya's colonial history and the single political party system founding President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta adopted after assuming power in 1963.

Under the one-party rule, opposition to the sitting president was never countenanced and those who as much as dared, risked the wrath of the party's rank and file, if not outright expulsion. The presidential election ended at the party nominations stage at that time. And even then, that was done to merely fulfill a legal requirement that demands that elections be held after every five years.