Rob Macaire

High Commissioner to Kenya

FCO Logo
« YOUNG BRITISH, KENYA... | Main | Help us to make our... »
Wednesday 26 August, 2009

Electoral Reform in Kenya

Met with the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC), together with various other Ambassadors and development colleagues.  Kenya has a plethora of new Commissions and task forces at the moment, but this has to be one of the most important in the country.  

As we discussed with them, their wide mandate charges them with enormous responsibilities, with the outside world and Kenyans all watching to see how well they are able to chart a course through the political obstacles to robust electoral reform.   The bye-elections this week will be an important test, but the IIEC is up against the clock in trying to build a set of electoral reforms and processes that will re-build Kenyans’ faith in the democratic process to deliver governments who are genuinely working for the national interest. 

I found it encouraging to hear some of the steps they have taken so far, and also the goodwill they reported from a wide range of stakeholders including the media.  Everyone knows how important it is for them to succeed.   Those of us in the international community share that desire, and we will continue to deliver practical support to them.   I'd be interested in any comments from readers about electoral reform, and where you see it heading.

Posted at 16:28 26 August 2009 by Rob Macaire  |  Comments[3]

  • Share this with:
Comments:

indeed Kenya is a country at crossroads.,facing earnomous challenges and requiring strong leadership and decisive actions. Apart from electoral reforms,Kenya needs to reform virtually all state institutions and even private sector in order to survive and entrench itself as a democratic stable country and embrace rule of fair legitimate laws. reforms are in needed in Kenya police and other security services,criminal justice system,public service functions,state corporations,local government,enviromental protection and forest s etc. however,the purpose of this is to suggest there is need for urgent reforms in public universities where there is on going serious academic fraud in the name of parallel degrees.quality and intergrity of parallel degrees,students qualifications,admission criteria,recruitment of lecturers,qualification of lecturers,course work,governance issues,facilities,equipment,academic environment in public universities are a matter of grave concern to credibility of our education and manpower development in the country. this issues require public scuitiny,open debate and should not be left to univesity heads alone to gapple with since they cant correct themselves.

Posted by charles on August 27, 2009 at 05:10 PM EAT #

First, interesting blog. I think reform is just one phase of the problem in Kenyan institutions. but beyond reform we need to scale this institutions. many of the institutions in Kenya operate as though they were in a small city state - Kenya is a country of 40 million but most of the institutions are frozen in time as though they were serving a country of 10 million. Just look at the police force a country of 40 million has a police force smaller than new york city. The same goes for the judiciary and every other institution. This i think in itself is a driver for corruption because service delivery is slow hence the need to pay bribes to move things along.

Posted by Louis on August 29, 2009 at 06:44 AM EAT #

There will be no election in 2012. The signs are there already - they tried to put in a 35 year old weakling as head of the IEC already but at least he was rejected in Parliament on the grounds of wife beating. Only Birkenfelds revelations can bring these devils out in the open - but they have renditioned with the Americans remember Rannenburgers affirmation of the rigged 2008 election, within 2 days of the coronation of the naked emperor. And they are also rearming the Southern Sudanese with Ukranian weapons with US connivance. Togather with the moral support of the Kikuyu/Catholic Church alliance really they have enough ammunition to resist all the international pressure - there will be NO ELECTION in 2012. Its simple.

Posted by Iqbal Halani on September 11, 2009 at 05:16 AM EAT #

Post a Comment:
  • HTML Syntax: NOT allowed

Calendar

« December 2009
MonTueWedThuFriSatSun
 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
   
       
Today

Search

Feeds

Tag cloud

Blogroll

Evaluation