1961 Kenyan general election
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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. 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.
Of the 1,411,117 registered voters, 29,879 (2.18%) were Indian, 19,332 (1.37%) white and 5,472 (0.38%) Arabs.
Results
Nine constituencies (with a total of 353,251 registered voters) were uncontested, reducing the number of actual voters to 1,057,866.
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya African National Union | 590,661 | 67.50 | 19 | |
| Kenya African Democratic Union | 143,079 | 16.35 | 11 | |
| Baluhya Political Union | 28,817 | 3.29 | 1 | |
| New Kenya Party | 28,284 | 3.23 | 4 | |
| Kenya Indian Congress | 10,488 | 1.20 | 3 | |
| Kenya Coalition | 8,891 | 1.02 | 3 | |
| Kenya Freedom Party | 5,263 | 0.60 | 2 | |
| Kenya National Congress | 4,561 | 0.52 | 0 | |
| Shungwaya Freedom Party | 3,748 | 0.43 | 1 | |
| Coast People's Party | 1,693 | 0.19 | 0 | |
| Tana River Pokomo Union | 699 | 0.08 | 0 | |
| African independents | 13,917 | 1.59 | 1 | |
| Arab independents | 5,712 | 0.65 | 2 | |
| Asian Hindu independents | 4,648 | 0.53 | 0 | |
| Asian Muslim independents | 11,880 | 1.36 | 3 | |
| European independents | 12,768 | 1.46 | 3 | |
| Appointed members | 12 | |||
| Total | 875,109 | 100.00 | 65 | |
| Valid votes | 875,109 | 98.91 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 9,678 | 1.09 | ||
| Total votes | 884,787 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,057,866 | 83.64 | ||
| Source: Sternberger et al. |