Tag Archives: White House

A classic example of why Kenyans are frustrated with the mix of international Election Observers and Media

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Kenya 2007 election Kibaki Tena Kazi iendelee re-election

“Can John Kerry help stop Kenya from slipping into Post-Election Violence Again?“, Newsweek, 10 Aug 2017:

Beyond the “Western patrician savior” headline:

. . . .

“I know what it’s like to lose an election. I lost by one state the presidency of the United States, and I had a lot of reasons to complain about what happened in Ohio or in other states. But you gotta get over it and move on,” said Kerry Thursday at a press conference in Nairobi, where he has headed up the election observation mission from the Carter Center. Kerry was likely referencing issues with the voting system in Ohio that led to a recount and reduced margin of victory for Bush.

 The result—and perhaps more significantly, the aftermath—of Kenya’s presidential election is not yet clear. With almost 99 percent of the votes counted, incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta is in front with 54 percent of the vote, ahead of opposition leader Raila Odinga at 45 percent. Kenya’s electoral commission has said the result will be confirmed on Friday.

But Odinga has signaled he will not accept the result quietly. Odinga stated on Thursday that unknown figures had hacked into the electronic systems of the electoral commission—using the identity of Chris Msando, the commission’s IT chief who was tortured and murdered less than two weeks before the vote—and swayed the vote in favor of Kenyatta. Odinga has called for calm but has also not ruled out summoning his supporters to the streets.

Such a move would have a dreadful familiarity in Kenya. After the 2007 election, which Odinga lost to incumbent Mwai Kibaki amid allegations of rigging, supporters of both candidates clashed over several months in an ethnically charged conflict that left more than 1,000 people dead.

Kerry has led the Carter Center’s observation mission in Kenya, which saw observers deployed at more than 400 polling stations across the country, as well as 36 tallying centers. The center said in a preliminary statement on Thursday that despite some problems in the transmission of results from polling stations to tallying centers, the vote had been conducted in a peaceful and calm atmosphere. It urged candidates to wait for the official results before commenting and to “use established legal channels” to resolve any disputes and “ensure that their supporters remain calm” before and after the results have been confirmed.

Kerry himself said the vote appeared to have proceeded in a free and fair manner. “The process that was put in place is proving its value thus far,” he said. “Kenya has made a remarkable statement to Africa and the world about its democracy and the character of that democracy. Don’t let anybody besmirch that.

Former President Barack Obama also has urged Kenyans and their leaders to reject “tribal and ethnic hatred” and to “work together no matter what the outcome.” (emphasis added)

Facile comparison to very dissimilar 2007 situation (see my The Debacle of 2007 in The Elephant here.)  Exaggerated time period for that violence ten years ago (most of the violence was within one month of the election and the settlement was reached at the end of the second month).  No mention that following new the constitution in 2010 as a result of the 2008 settlement, the Odinga v Uhuru dispute of 2013 resulted in no widespread violence and much smaller numbers of opposition supporters killed by State for protesting.  No mention that the country in August 2008 was basically locked down by a massive and oppressive state security deployment.

No substantive focus on the main electoral problem: failure of results transmission system, as in 2013 (and mirroring 2007) yet bare assertion that 99 percent of vote counted.

Advocacy by Kerry beyond written statement of his Carter Center Mission that the election appeared to meet standards and to achieve the (Western) goal of an African success story and “Don’t let anybody besmirch that”. Etc.

Kenya Election Trump White House congratulates Kenyatta on fair and transpaent re-election

Here is the latest from AFRICOM following last week’s “new policy” on Africa

Aside

Here is the official word from the AFRICOM blog on the current annual joint African Endeavor exercise in West Africa, along with a good comment from David Aronson to the effect that these things make conceptual sense to build the security capacity of African states, but also raise concerns in terms of the potential for this capacity to benefit repressive regimes.

It seems that in the U.S. most people who pay attention to things are asking what then is new in the “New Policy” on Sub-Saharan Africa from the White House last week.  Rhetorically the prioritization on democracy has been there–the question is what concrete steps we are willing to take to do a better job in practice of balancing competing priorities.  The policy announcement speaks to the concerns raised in my last post, but in generalities.

Ultimately, democratic transition involves risk and uncertainty–something different than “security”.  Local perspective is necessary.  In Kenya, for instance, we have seen the al-Qaeda-related Embassy bombing and other acts of terrorism; nonetheless, Kenyans can only dream of the day when poor performance by their own government is not vastly more dangerous than the terrorists.  Even with the current war in Somalia the regular stream of explosions killing Kenyans week in and week out are road accidents.

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Administration continues to grapple with who is to lead development efforts

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Josh Rogan at Foreign Policy’s The Cable blog has a post that has drawn some expansive comments with a leaked draft of a White House “Presidential Study Directive on Global Development”, calling for establishing an interagency committee to coordinate, and elevate, development policy–thus pulling this function out of the State Department.

Rogan reports ongoing tension between the National Security Council and the State Department. No clarity as to when the administration will settle on a final approach here.

News from Hargeisa: Somaliland Presidential Election expected for sometime in June

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Hargeysa, Somaliland, April 17, 2010 (SL Times) – The Chairman of Somaliland’s Election Commission Eng. Isse Yusuf Haji Muhammad revealed that they expect Somaliland’s presidential election to take place in June 2010. The Chairman gave this information in the context of elaborating on the election code of conduct that was recently signed by Somaliland’s political parties. He made these three points:

1- The electoral commission has done a lot in preparing for the election including opening offices throughout the country and selecting staff.

2- The voting cards will be distributed in the first two weeks of May.

3- The election is expected to be held in June, but the exact date has not been finalized yet.

See “Somaliland Finally Prepares for Presidential Polls” also from the Somaliland Times with additional background.

Somaliland Times editorial on delegation’s visit to White House

Former deputy chairman of parliament raises concern that NGO’s operating in Somaliland might participate in drafting constitution for Somalia in Nairobi and that this would in some way prejudice Somaliland which is not involved.