General elections were held in Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

 on 21 March 1988. At time the county was a one-party state with the Kenya African National Union

Kenya African National Union

The Kenya African National Union, better known as KANU is a political party which ruled Kenya for nearly 40 years after its independence from British colonial rule in 1963, until its electoral loss at the end of 2002...

 as the sole legal party. The size of the National Assembly

National Assembly of Kenya

The unicameral National Assembly of Kenya is the country's legislative body.The current National Assembly has a total of 224 members. 210 members are directly elected in single member constituencies using the simple majority system...

 was expanded from 158 to 188 seats, whilst a further 12 members were appointed by President Daniel arap Moi

Daniel arap Moi

Daniel Toroitich arap Moi was the President of Kenya from 1978 until 2002.Daniel arap Moi is popularly known to Kenyans as 'Nyayo', a Swahili word for 'footsteps'...

. Voter turnout was only 32.5%.

Background

In February 1988 a new system was introduced for the primary election

Primary election

A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....

s of KANU candidates. The mlolongo or queue

Queue

A queue is a particular kind of collection in which the entities in the collection are kept in order and the principal operations on the collection are the addition of entities to the rear terminal position and removal of entities from the front terminal position. This makes the queue a...

 system involved party members line up behind photographs of their preferred candidate. In a country of 20 million people, only 4,528,480 were KANU members, and there were accusations that the mlolongo system resulted in voter intimidation and fraud during the primaries. Beyond, a church-based magazine was banned after it condemned the public voting as "a mockery of justice."

Results

30

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/-
Kenya African National Union Kenya African National Union The Kenya African National Union, better known as KANU is a political party which ruled Kenya for nearly 40 years after its independence from British colonial rule in 1963, until its electoral loss at the end of 2002...	2,231,229	100	188
Invalid/blank votes	33,152
Total	2,264,381	100	188	+30
Source: IPU

Aftermath

At the first meeting of newly-elected Assembly in April 1988, Frederick Mbiti Gideon Mati, who had been Speaker

Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya

The Speaker is the presiding officer of the Kenyan Parliament .-Qualifications:The speaker is elected by the assembly from among persons or are qualified to be members of the assembly...

 since 1970, resigned, and the National Assembly elected Moses Kiprono arap Keino

Moses Kiprono arap Keino

Moses Kiprono arap Keino was Speaker of the Parliament of Kenya from 1988 until 1991.-Education and early life:...

as his replacement.