Kenya’s 2022 general elections have been postponed by five years until 2027, and the government will use the election budget to fight coronavirus.
“Kenyans 2022 elections to be postponed until 2027. Government to use the election budget to fight Coronavirus,” claims a Facebook post from late March 2020., Kenya’s most recent general election was held in August 2017. The country’s constitution sets out that polls must be held on “the second Tuesday in August in every fifth year”, making 9 August 2022 the date of the next nationwide election., But will it be postponed until 2027 because of the coronavirus pandemic?, Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has not made any announcement about the 2022 election., In its most recent statement, on 1 April 2020, the commission said its activities had been limited by the countrywide measures to slow the spread of Covid-19., “Not only have the day to day operations of the commission been adversely disrupted but also the conduct of the upcoming by elections will be adversely affected,” the commission said., But it was referring to by-elections in 2020, not the 2022 general election. The by-elections were to be held in four county wards., The commission said activities related to the by-elections – voting during party primaries, campaign rallies and the actual polls – risked exposing voters to the coronavirus. It had therefore “resolved to postpone the by-elections to a later date in line with Section 55(B) of the Elections Act, 2011 and Regulation 64(A) of the Elections (General) Regulations, 2012”., We checked the commission’s website and social media accounts and found no mention of the 2022 general election being postponed. – Grace Gichuhi, , "A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”. What should you do? First, dont delete!", Click on our guide for the steps you should follow., Publishers guide, Africa Check is a partner in Facebook’s third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media., The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it., You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how., Africa Check is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers fighting misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic., Learn more about the alliance here., , © Copyright Africa Check 2020. Read our republishing guidelines.\xa0You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: “This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page., We depend on voluntary donations to run this site. Please help us to keep public figures accountable by supporting the project., Find out more, For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa Check is an independent, non-partisan organisation which assesses claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results., , Get a weekly dose of facts, straight to your inbox.
Kenya’s 2022 general election postponed due to coronavirus? No, 2020 by-elections ‘adversely affected’  | Africa Check