Election Laws: Offences Relating to Elections in Kenya

Section 13 of the Kenya Election offences Act

13.Offences relating to elections
A person who—
(a) prints, publishes, distributes or posts up, or causes to be printed,
published, distributed or posted up, any advertisement, handbill,
placard or poster which refers to any election and which does not bear
upon its face the names and addresses of the printer and publisher;
(b) makes or publishes, before or during any election, for the purpose
of promoting or procuring the election of any candidate, any false
statement of withdrawal of any other candidate at such election;
(c) forges, defaces or destroys any nomination paper, or delivers to a
returning officer any nomination paper knowing it to be forged;
(d) interferes with election material by removing destroying, concealing
or mutilating or assists in the removal, destruction, concealment
or mutilation of any such material save on the authority of the
Commission or under the provisions of the Elections Act (No. 24 of
2011);
(e) directly or indirectly prints, manufactures or supplies or procures the
printing, manufacture or supply of any election material in connection
with the election save on the authority of the Commission;
(f) interferes with free political canvassing and campaigning by—
(i) using language which is threatening, abusive or insulting or
engages in any kind of action which may advocate hatred, incite
violence or influence the voters on grounds of ethnicity, race,
religion, gender or any other ground of discrimination;
(ii) directly or indirectly, using the threat of force, violence,
harassment or otherwise preventing the conduct of any political
meeting, march, demonstration or other event of a political
nature or any other person from attending or participating
therein;
(iii) creating a material disruption with the intention of preventing a
political party from holding a public political meeting;
(iv) impeding, preventing or threatening to impede or prevent the
right of any representative of any political party from gaining
access, in the manner and during the hours prescribed to voters
in any particular area, whether public or private for the purposes
of canvassing and campaigning and soliciting membership and
support; or
(v) impeding, preventing or threatening to impede or prevent
a member of the Commission, a representative of the
Commission or any other authorised person or organisation
engaged in voter education from gaining access, in the refuses
or fails to effect a direction, instruction or lawful order issued by
or on behalf of the Commission;
(g) refuses or fails to leave an election counting centre or any area
designated by the Commission for electoral purposes when so
ordered in accordance with the Elections Act;
(h) enters or remains in an election centre or in any area designated by
the Commission for electoral purposes in contravention of Elections
Act;
(i) obstructs or hinders any elections officer, candidate or agent in the
execution of their lawful duties;
(j) makes a false statement or furnishes false particulars in any
statement which is required under Elections Act knowing the
statement or particulars to be false or without reasonable grounds for
believing the same to be true; or
(k) publishes, repeats or disseminates in any manner whatsoever,
information with the intention of—
(i) disrupting or preventing the election;
(ii) creating hostility or fear in order to influence the process or
outcome of the election; or
(iii) otherwise unlawfully influencing the process or outcome of the
election, or aids, abets counsels or procures the commission of
or attempts to commit any such offence; or
(l) forges, defaces or destroys any campaign or promotional material of
an opposing candidate or political party,
commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding five hundred
thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to both.