FREE, FAIR AND CREDIBLE? Turning The Spotlight On Election Observers disq.us/t/2tbawap #KenyaDecides My views after 2017 Supreme Court struck Presidential election; as I could have done better in 2007 my successors could have done better in 2013 and 2017. 1/
"The Election Observation industry has generated a sharp backlash from Kenyans in being reported and perceived to have assertively blessed a hotly contested election process that was ultimately thrown out by the Supreme Court of Kenya as not meeting the minimum standards ..."
"In spite of the fact that . . . all had significant experience with this result transmission situation in Kenya in either 2007 or 2013, or both, all three went ahead and issued formal Preliminary Statements on an apparently pre-scheduled basis." 3/
"In 2007, EUEOM properly held up on issuing a Preliminary Statement after the voting given the problems with the tally (the ECK having shelved shortly before the election laptop computers purchased for them by USAID to transmit results, as we learned from the Kreigler Report)"4/
Re 2017: "Nonetheless, read carefully as a whole the NDI statement does not really...provide the type of benediction for a successful election that was claimed by editorial pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post and then the Trump White House spokesman on Aug 14."5/
"The mystery is how these formal written reports were then translated into the expansive words of advocacy of John Kerry as the co-lead delegate of the Carter Center delegation...I could speculate why, but I should not have to and will not here." 6/
inevitable that Kerry--past Secretary of State[who visited} Kenya after Obama’s 2015 trip... and was Amb. Godec’s boss ...in Kenya’s 2013 election—was the “big dog” for the media and that his words would trump not only those of others ... but the .. "fine print" 7/
"Kenya’s leaders have historically proven quite skillful in stealing their own elections ... no actual need for us to “observe” these elections unless we are quite committed to add value by being thoroughly independent and credible to level the playing field a small bit" 8/
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