KENYA: Foreign observers praise Kenya election

Record ID: 361588

  • Title: KENYA: Foreign observers praise Kenya election
  • Date: 29th December 2007
  • Summary: (BN12) NAIROBI, KENYA (DECEMBER 28, 2007) (REUTERS) CATHERINE MWENGI, ELECTORAL COMMISSION OF KENYA (ECK) PRESIDING OFFICER, STANDING NEAR CROWD (SOUNDBITE) (English) ECK PRESIDING OFFICER, CATHERINE MWENGI, SAYING: "The winner is Raila Odinga Amolo." CROWD CHEERING VARIOUS OF ODINGA SUPPORTERS HOLDING PLACARDS AND CHEERING
  • Embargoed: 13th January 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA8P1BILOSM2PP96UO2OSP5S1PY
  • Story Text: International observers praised Kenya's vote on Friday (December 28) as broadly transparent and peaceful, despite fears such a close race would encourage rigging and large-scale violence.
    Monitors from the European Union, a group of nations from Africa's Great Lakes region and the U.S.-based International Republican Institute all praised the election pitting President Mwai Kibaki against feisty opposition challenger Raila Odinga.

    "In the view of our group, because it has been an open process and because the voters had been so educated, that is the other thing... a point I wanted to make earlier, just watching the process and the people voting, they knew what they were doing and they knew what they had to watch for and they were watching for it. It's much harder for anybody to rig an election, when that is the case but my suggestion is everybody keep watching because it's not over," said Constance Newman, the Chief Observer for the International Republican Institute.
    Pre-vote opinion poll leader Odinga and his Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) have an early lead, according to media tallies of the presidential and parliamentary votes on Thursday.
    Odinga had repeatedly accused Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) of planning to rig the vote and warned east Africa's biggest economy could descend into "bloodshed" if his supporters were cheated.
    Yet despite gloomy predictions and sporadic clashes in the run up to the vote including riots suppressed with tear gas and an incident in which three police were beaten to death, observers said there has been scant poll-related violence.

    "As the country moves into the final phase of the election, IRI's delegation encourages the people to continue to respect the process in a peaceful manner and then accept the final decision," Newman added.
    Minor complaints by observers included some voters being double-counted on the register. All stressed that only at the end of the counting could the vote be declared free and fair.
    Meanwhile large groups of Odinga supporters danced and cheered in Nairobi on Friday as an electoral officer announced that opposition leader has recaptured his parliamentary seat after winning overwhelmingly in his own Langata constituency (Nairobi Province).
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