The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties has cleared 47 candidates to contest for Kenya’s top seat in the August general election as independent candidates.

The Registrar of Political Parties Ann Nderitu said there is an upsurge in the number of independent candidates in the August general elections.

About 7,111 independent candidates are expected to take part in the forthcoming elections.

According to Nderitu, heightened political awareness among the candidates is attributed to the increase of candidates interested in vying as independent candidates.

“The increase is mostly because of awareness as compared to previous polls. A majority of them did not participate in the party primaries; they started applying before the primaries,” Nderitu said.

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Should the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) clear the independent candidates, the August general election will witness the greatest number of presidential aspirants since 1992.

Out of the 7,111 independent candidates, 104 are gubernatorial contestants, while 141 are running for the senate.

994 of that number are seeking Parliamentary seats while 110 are seeking the woman representative seats.

5,765 is the number of independent candidates seeking Member of County Assembly seats.

Several independent candidates are former members of other political parties who failed to clinch the tickets of their respective parties in the primaries.