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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 NAIROBI 000136 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KDEM KPAO PGOV PREL KE
SUBJECT: KENYA ELECTIONS: EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY OBSERVATION MISSION 
 
REPORT 
 
¶1. On Saturday,  January 12 the East African Community Observer 
Mission 
issued the following report on the Kenyan General Elections. 
 
Begin text: 
 
THE EAST AFRICAN COMMUNITY OBSERVER MISSION REPORT KENYA GENERAL 
ELECTIONS DECEMBER 2007 
 
INTRODUCTION 
------------ 
 
The following is the East African Community?s Observer Mission 
Report 
covering the period immediately before the election, the polling day 
 
and the post election period. 
 
The East African Community Observer Mission (the Mission) undertook 
the 
task pursuant to: 
-Article 3 of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African 
Community (Treaty) which requires ??adherence to universally 
acceptable 
principles of good governance democracy, the rule of law, observance 
of 
human rights and social justice?.? 
-Article 5(1) of the Treaty which provides for, ??widening and 
deepening cooperation among the Partner States in political, 
economic, 
social and cultural fields, research and technology, defence, 
security 
and legal and judicial affairs, for their mutual benefit.? 
 
Further, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) extended an 
invitation 
to the East African Community (EAC) in accordance with Regulation 
45(1) 
of the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Act 2002 
 
which provides that, ??the Electoral Commission may, at any 
election, 
accredit any individual, association, organisation or institution 
who 
or which is manifestly non-partisan to act as election observers?? 
 
OBJECTIVES 
---------- 
The objectives for which the Mission was deployed are as follows: 
To ascertain whether the elections were free and fair and conform to 
 
principles of good governance and democracy in the region; To look 
out 
for best electoral practices that could be emulated in the region; 
and 
to widen and deepen cooperation between Partner States in socio- 
economic and political Affairs. 
 
COMPOSITION OF THE MISSION 
-------------------------- 
 
 
The Mission consisted of East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) 
Members from Uganda and Tanzania as well as professional staff from 
the 
EAC Secretariat.  The exclusion of Kenyan EALA Members is consistent 
 
with adopted practice that Members of the Mission should not 
participate in election observations in their own countries.  The 
following are members of the Mission:  NOTE: Names deleted for 
Brevity. 
 
DEPLOYMENT 
---------- 
 
The Mission deployed in all the eight provinces of the country. It 
is 
worth noting that the Mission could not deploy in all the districts 
in 
all the eight provinces because of logistical constraints.  The 
Mission?s liaison with other observer teams made it possible to have 
 
NAIROBI 00000136  002 OF 005 
 
 
a 
more comprehensive picture of the electoral process. 
 
METHODOLOGY 
----------- 
 
The Mission employed various methods in its work, including but not 
 
limited to: 
 
Literature review; Review of media reports-radio, print and 
electronic; 
Meetings and interactions with various stakeholders; Attending 
briefings by the Electoral Commission of Kenya; Attending political 
 
campaign rallies; Focus Group Discussions with different 
stakeholders; 
Face to face interviews; Use of questionnaires. 
 
PRE- POLLING DAY OBSERVATIONS 
----------------------------- 
 
Generally a relatively calm environment prevailed despite some 
isolated 
incidences of violence some of which resulted in loss of life and 
destruction of property. 
-High voter registration as evidenced by the ECK statistics. 
-Extensive coverage of the electoral process by both public and 
private 
local media as well as regional and international ones. 
-Campaign rallies attended by the Mission were largely peaceful. 
-Political parties adhered to regulations regarding the conclusion 
of 
election campaigns. 
-The political parties exhibited varying states of un-preparedness 
triggered off by re-alignment of political parties and party 
affiliation during the primaries. 
-Persistent reports of allegations of abuse of public resources by 
the 
ruling party during the campaigns. 
-A pervasive atmosphere of suspicion of possible vote rigging. 
-To the disadvantage of some presidential candidates; the public 
media 
covered only three of the nine presidential contestants. 
-There were incidences of political intimidation at various polling 
 
stations throughout the country. 
-The constitutional provision that requires a presidential candidate 
to 
also win a parliamentary seat, inter alia, caused serious tension 
and 
anxiety in Lang?ata. 
 
POLLING DAY OBSERVATIONS 
------------------------ 
 
-High voter turn out and few registered cases of spoilt and rejected 
 
ballots indicated sufficient civic and voter education. 
-Timely dispatch of voting materials, and sufficient presence of 
electoral staff at the Polling stations facilitated an orderly 
voting 
exercise. 
-Commendable efforts were made to extend assistance to special 
groups, 
including mothers with children, pregnant mothers, the disabled, the 
 
elderly and the illiterate. 
-The ECK officials exhibited good conduct throughout the voting 
process. 
-The availability of a Black Book was very useful in cases where 
voters? names were missing in voter register. 
-Electoral Observers received cooperation by all the stakeholders 
including the Electoral Commission, political parties and the 
voters; 
-There was good cooperation among party agents at the polling 
stations. 
-The polling day activities were extensively covered by local, 
regional 
and international media; 
-Electoral officials appeared to be conversant with rules of 
procedures 
on closing and counting; 
 
NAIROBI 00000136  003 OF 005 
 
 
-Counting took place openly in the presence of candidates? agents, 
observers and monitors 
-The Mission noted that women were fairly represented in the ECK 
 
structures. 
-The Mission noted that small and crowded classrooms used as voting 
 
stations compromised voter secrecy. 
-Arrangement of voting in alphabetical order caused some confusion 
and 
unnecessary delays; 
-Voter assistance in some cases compromised voter secrecy. 
-Missing names in the register and black book disenfranchised some 
voters. 
-In a number of areas, voting had an ethnic bias, resulting in 
ethnic 
minority voters being disadvantaged. 
-Lack of a time frame within which election results were to be 
announced caused anxiety, tension and speculation. 
-In some areas mounting of road blocks by vigilantes caused 
inconvenience to voters and other stakeholders. 
-Sorting of ballot papers in the counting process was not properly 
structured in some areas and thus contributed to delays. 
-The ECK used opaque ballot boxes instead of transparent ones. 
-In some cases campaign posters of candidates were observed within 
the 
prohibited radius of polling centres 
-The practice of interviewing political leaders within the confines 
of 
polling stations, after they had voted, breached electoral 
regulations. 
 
COLLATION, TALLYING AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE  ELECTION RESULTS 
---------- ------------ ------------- ------------------------- 
-Tallying was done in the presence of party and candidates? agents; 
 
-Form 16A had to be signed by all parties and candidates? agents for 
 
purposes of authenticating the results. 
-Announcement of results at polling station level reflected 
transparency; 
-The Mission noted with concern, the slow process of collation and 
tallying of the Presidential results, led to heightened tension in 
several parts of the country leading to violent riots; 
-Delayed relaying of results from strongholds of one of the 
Presidential candidates fuelled speculation and fear that results 
were 
tampered with: 
-Some parties raised concern regarding the mode and timing of 
electing 
ECK Commissioners; 
-Concerns were raised about impartiality of the judiciary and 
expediency of handling election petitions within a specific time 
frame. 
-The ECK Chairman exhibited no control over the process of tallying 
and 
announcement of results. 
-A number of utterances made by the ECK Chairman cast doubt on the 
integrity and credibility of the Commission. 
-The ECK Chairman displayed incompetence and weakness in the final 
management of the electoral process. 
 
POST ELECTION 
------------- 
 
The Mission observed the following: 
-Escalation of riots in several provinces in the nation; 
-increased loss of life; 
-There is a growing number of Internally Displaced Persons and an 
influx of refugees into Partner States; 
-Destruction of property and looting; 
-The ethnic dimension continues to bedevil the society; 
-The goodwill exhibited by the different initiatives towards 
mediation. 
-Far reaching negative socio-economic consequences to Kenya and 
Partner 
States. 
 
CONCLUSION 
---------- 
An election is a process that involves a number of stages namely 
gazetting of the election period, nominations, campaigns, civic and 
 
 
NAIROBI 00000136  004 OF 005 
 
 
voter education, polling, counting of votes, tallying, announcement 
and 
declaration of results.  The whole process is conducted within the 
national legal framework that is to say the constitution, the 
presidential, parliamentary, civic laws as well as regulations. The 
 
above process can be categorized into three main stages namely pre- 
polling phase, polling day and post polling period. 
 
The Pre-Polling Phase was initially characterized by an atmosphere 
of 
tension, suspicion, and some incidences of violence in different 
parts 
of the country.  Different stakeholders condemned the violence and 
subsequently the environment changed into a relatively conducive 
atmosphere for continued campaigns until the polling day. In spite 
of 
the initial challenges, this stage can be considered to have been 
generally successful. 
 
Notwithstanding some shortfalls, Polling Day was characterized by a 
 
high voter turnout, good performance by the electoral officials, 
which 
led to a peaceful and transparent voting process. In most cases the 
 
counting and announcement of results at the polling centres was 
concluded well. 
 
The Mission commends the role played by the media in covering and 
relaying information regarding the entire electoral process in a 
timely 
manner.  The Media?s role was critical on the polling day where they 
 
regularly kept the public informed about electoral developments. 
This 
is a best practice that should be emulated by Media houses in the 
region. 
 
The Post Polling Period was characterized by uncoordinated and 
suspect 
actions, which include among others statements by the Chairman of 
the 
ECK to the effect that he could not trace some of his Returning 
Officers who had disappeared with the results and had switched off 
their phones. In addition, he also stated that he would declare the 
 
results with or without the returns, which he didn?t do. 
 
The delay in the announcement of the results plus the shortcomings 
mentioned above resulted in gross mismanagement of the tallying 
process 
and declarations of the Presidential results. This critically 
undermined the credibility of the final stage of electoral process. 
 
 
The EAC Mission strongly commends the people of Kenya for the high 
voter turnout, their enthusiasm and commitment to the process, 
respect, 
hospitality and cooperation accorded to the Observer Missions. In 
the 
same vein, the Mission condemns the resultant violence and deeply 
regrets the senseless loss of life and property. 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS 
--------------- 
 
-The Mission calls upon the Summit to review the state of peace, 
security and good governance in Kenya as mandated by Article 11(3) 
of 
the EAC Treaty. 
-The Mission urges the Summit to take an active role and be at the 
 
forefront of the process towards a just and lasting solution to the 
 
crisis. 
-The Mission commends the initiatives that have been made towards 
there 
solution of the ongoing political conflict and all efforts to 
support 
this initiative are encouraged. 
-The EAC should establish a regional mechanism to prevent, manage, 
resolve disputes and conflicts and common mechanisms for the 
 
NAIROBI 00000136  005 OF 005 
 
 
management 
of refugees in the Region as per Chapter 23 of the Treaty; 
-The fundamental principle in the Treaty which requires adherence to 
 
principles of good governance should be underpinned by enactment of 
a 
uniform electoral law and establishment of an East African Electoral 
 
Commission. 
-The East African Community should develop a civic education 
programme 
that addresses potential challenges of ethnic and tribal tensions 
within the region. 
-Excessive use of force in dealing with protestors should be 
discouraged. 
-Those involved in perpetration of political crime and killings 
should 
be prosecuted. 
-The anomalies cited in the tallying process should be investigated 
and 
the ECK Officials and any other persons found to be responsible 
should 
be held accountable. 
 
Electoral legal reforms in Kenya should encompass the following: 
-Provision of a time limit within election results should be 
announced; 
-Provision of a specific time-frame within which electoral petitions 
 
are disposed of; 
-Use of transparent ballot boxes; 
-Clarity on qualifications for presidential victory; 
-Appointment of the Judiciary; 
-Appointment of ECK Officials; 
-Use of public resources during campaigns; 
-Clarity on powers, authority and autonomy of the ECK. 
 
Political Party leaders should prevail over their supporters to stop 
 
violence and engage in collective dialogue for the resolution of the 
 
crisis. 
 
The Mission urges Kenyan citizens to appreciate the need for unity 
in 
diversity even at this critical point in their nation?s history. 
END TEXT. 
 
RANNEBERGER