10 February 2027: The Day Public Officers Must Quit to Run

If you draw a salary from the public purse and you intend to be on the ballot on 10 August 2027, you have to be out of that job by 10 February 2027.

Six months before polling day. The IEBC gazetted the date in August 2026.

Who this catches

Wider than people assume. It is not only civil servants in ministries. In past cycles the rule has reached county chief officers and county executive committee members, parastatal and state corporation staff, officers of constitutional commissions, and staff of county assemblies.

If you are unsure whether your particular office counts, the safe assumption is that it does, and the safe move is to get a written answer from your employer's legal office in November, not January.

Why people miss a date they have known about for a year

Three reasons, every cycle.

Contractual notice. Your contract may require one, two or three months' notice. Working backwards from 10 February with a three-month notice period means your resignation letter is due in November 2026. People discover this in January.

Terminal benefits. Officers hold on because leaving early affects gratuity, pension vesting or a bonus that pays in March. That is a real financial decision, but it is a decision, and it has to be made in December — not negotiated in February.

Waiting for a party. The most common one. An aspirant delays resigning until they know whether the party will actually give them the ticket. But the party's primaries are in April and May 2027, two months after the resignation wall. So the sequencing is brutal: you must resign first and find out second.

The sequencing problem, stated honestly

You will be asked to give up a salary before anyone has promised you anything. That is the deal, and no amount of planning removes it.

What planning does is change what you are risking on. An aspirant who resigns in February 2027 with no structure, no ward coordinators and no demonstrable support has bet a career on a meeting going their way. An aspirant who resigns having spent late 2026 building a real base has bet on something they can point to.

That is the practical case for starting early, and it is not a marketing line. The nomination conversations that decide tickets happen in rooms where somebody asks "what does this person actually have?" A named coordinator in every ward, a volunteer roster with completed tasks against it, and a turnout plan is an answer. Enthusiasm is not.

A calendar that works backwards

Related: the full 2027 calendar and what happens at the primaries.

The two questions nobody asks their HR office

Can you come back? If you resign, lose the nomination and want your job again, the answer is almost always no — there is no statutory right of return, and your post will have been filled. Ask anyway, in writing, because a few employers have discretionary provisions and it is worth knowing which kind you work for.

Does a leave-of-absence count? No. The requirement is resignation from the office, not absence from the desk. Aspirants have tried to structure unpaid leave as a workaround and it does not survive scrutiny at nomination.

What the six months are actually for

The rule exists to stop a public officer using state resources and public standing to campaign. That purpose is worth remembering, because it also tells you what the Electoral Code of Conduct — in force since 20 August 2026 — will be looking at in your case: the office vehicle, the office staff, the official platform.

An officer who resigns on 9 February 2027 and spent January touring their county in a government car has complied with the letter of one rule and handed an opponent a complaint under another.