Kenya will head to the polls on Tuesday, August 10, 2027, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission announced on Wednesday.
The Commission unveiled the date alongside a full election calendar at the launch of its Election Operation Plan, 2025 to 2027, giving public officers, parties and candidates a clear set of deadlines to plan around.
Public Officers Face a February Resignation Deadline
IEBC Commissioner Ann Nderitu, who chairs the Election Operation Committee, opened with the rule : anyone holding public office who wants to run for an elective seat must quit that job first.
“A public officer who intends to contest in the General Election shall resign from public office within six months before the date of the election, being on or before Tuesday, February 9, 2027,” Nderitu said.
Civil servants weighing a political run now have a firm date to work backward from.
Parties Must Lock In Membership Lists by March
Political parties carry their own paperwork burden. The Commission set March 16, 2027, as the deadline for parties to submit their membership lists, along with the names of candidates standing in party primaries and the dates and venues where those primaries will take place. Filing early matters here: a party that misses this window risks disputes later over who actually qualifies to vote in its primaries or stand as its candidate.
Primaries and Internal Disputes Must Wrap Up by May
Nderitu gave parties a hard stop for settling their own house. “A political party intending to present a candidate in the General Election shall conduct its primaries and resolve intra party disputes on or before Sunday, May 9, 2027,” she said. That single date covers, holding the primary and resolving any fallout from it, which should narrow the window for the kind of last minute legal battles that have disrupted past nomination periods.
Independent Candidates Must Cut Party Ties Early
Anyone planning to run without party backing faces the same May 9, 2027, cutoff, but from the opposite direction. The Commission said candidates standing as independents must not be members of any registered party by that date, three months ahead of the election.
In effect, a candidate cannot test the party primary route and fall back on an independent bid afterward. The choice has to be made before primaries even close elsewhere.
Nominations Open Once Primaries Settle
With party and independent candidates sorted, the Commission will accept nomination papers between May 29 and June 11, 2027. Anyone unhappy with how a nomination played out has until June 12, 2027, to file a dispute, and the Commission has committed to ruling on each one within ten days. Candidates and parties need a final answer well before campaigning starts, not a dispute still working through the system once rallies are underway.
Campaigns Run for Just Over Two Months
The official campaign period opens on May 29, 2027, the same day nominations begin, and closes on August 7, 2027, leaving a short quiet period before voters go to the polls. Candidates will spend roughly ten weeks making their case before the country decides.
Taken together, the calendar gives Kenya’s 2027 election a structure built around clean breaks: officials must choose between their jobs and the ballot months in advance, parties must settle their disputes before nominations open, and disputes over those nominations must close before campaigning takes over. Kenyans now have a roadmap stretching from now until polling day, and every actor in the race, from a sitting MP weighing a resignation to a first time independent candidate, knows exactly which date applies to them.
