International Political Dialogue - „Kenya at the crossroads“

International Political Dialogue - „Kenya at the crossroads“ [printable version]

„Kenya at the crossroads“
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, MEP, in Washington D.C.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, member of the European Parliament, who headed the team of EU observers to Kenya accepted an invitation extended by the Transatlantic Dialogue Programme of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty to address 130 attendees in Washington, D.C. He spoke about his experience as an observer to the elections in Kenya in late December last year. He frankly admitted in his opening words that he had not expected such exciting experience. After a few words regarding the structural background to this mission he came right to the point and spoke about what he saw in the country.

At the beginning, the election observers of his team were happy with what they saw. Technical election preparations had been in the hands of professionals. Long queues at polling booths signaled high turnouts from the very beginning. Post-election vote counting had functioned with extraordinary transparency, practically ruling out any fraud at that stage. But there had been an abrupt change after results from individual polling stations had been forwarded to Nairobi, where constituency results were put together at the central level. Election observers had been barred from that part of the proceedings. Quite obviously, irregularities occurred at that stage. Votes counted for constituency results often did not match numbers registered by on-the-spot observers at polling booths. Further, absurd results had been reported of almost 100 per cent of the electorate actually voting. Such irregularities produced a certain amount of unexpected violence, when official results were published.

Ongoing normalisation in Kenya was also largely due to the firm attitude of the international community, whose clear-cut and co-ordinated statements to leaders in Nairobi decisively contributed to a rapprochement of the parties to the conflict and to a division of power in the country. The country was now on a promising road of an “African” solution accompanied by relative reticence of external players. Given the tension in Kenya, other options, such as a repeat of the elections had stood no chance. It is now important for the future of the country to enshrine the agreement concluded in official legislation and that the rulers keep alive the spirit of their settlement. For the future, the international community also stands by to render its support because stability in Kenya is in its very own interest.

Numerous lessons could be learned from this mission for any future EU electoral observer teams. To begin with, it was obvious that it makes sense to “promote democracy” and that the EU and its important “soft power” may make important contributions. Serious thought should also be given to considerations to start such observation work earlier in the process. Also, for the Kenya elections the nomination process had been the weakest link. Women had only accounted for seven per cent of all candidates. Of course, any extension of such missions also brought up the issue of funding. Graf Lambsdorff therefore felt that such considerations did not stand much chance.