Kenya’s General Election is one of the most open and transparent in Africa. The poll body, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has accredited about 4,850 journalists, observer missions from regional and international organisations such as the East African Community, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the European Union and many others.
Some of the observers such as the former President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete, British High Commissioner to Kenya Jane Marriott and the new US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whittman were spotted at some polling stations.
It seems that the observers took their time and carefully analysed all the procedures from the identification of voters to the transmission of the results to the IEBC’s national tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya.
Recently, the head of EAC’s observer mission Jakaya Kikwete commented on what he observed over the election period so far.
In a video posted by KTN journalist Ali Manzu, Kikwete was quoted saying, “When it comes to this election, the work to improve must continue, however there are some things which have been better than in the previous election. The first thing is the transparency level which is very important. At the polling station political parties’ agents were allowed to carry their smartphones. I’m not sure whether all the countries in Africa allow that.”
Kikwete continues by saying that when the form 34As were filled and signed the agents were allowed to take photos and send them to their respective political parties. The journalists who were present were also allowed to take photos and send to their media centres before the information is sent to the IEBC portal where all Kenyans can access.
Kikwete also touched on why media houses are showing different presidential results by saying that everyone accessing the portal is doing their calculations based on the form 34As they have started with. He described the posting of information on the portal as very transparent. Lastly, Kikwete commended the use of technology in all the processes in this General Election.
Link.
https://twitter.com/Ali_Manzu/status/1557714572932534272?t=n1l_i6BdEWE_kMeJyQEQcw&s=01
https://youtu.be/lqnrT94ZMRk
by: Ledward