A proposal to change election dates in Kenya from August to December has flopped following a failure to obtain the required number of Members of Parliament to enable a vote.

The bill was brought to the House by MP Chris Wamalwa, but it was defeated as only 187 of the required 233 legislators turned up for the vote.

“Honorable Members, the members present electronically are 172 and those manually are 15 making a total of 187, accordingly members the house cannot proceed to vote for the motion for the second reading and therefore the motion is defeated,” Parliament Speaker Justin Muturi said.

Wamalwa's reason for wanting a change in the election dates was that the current dates interfere with the school calendar.

“We use schools as polling stations. Too many campaigns affect school activities. Last year's election tampered with KCPE and KCSE and as legislators we deem it fit that we change the dates,” he said earlier.

Kenya's past three presidential elections have been marred by violence, which in turn affected schools.