The Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) and Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice (KPTJ) are pleased to present the latest report in their “Ready or Not?” series, which was launched before the 2013 elections.
In these reports, AfriCOG and KPTJ assess and analyse events throughout the electoral cycle, with a special focus on pre-election preparedness, the administration of election day and results announcement, and post-election dispute resolution.
We offer these objective assessments as contributions to the public debate on critical issues, meant to educate the public on the conduct of their elections and to build the capacity of our partners to monitor performance
on key aspects of public life and to demand accountability.
This will be the first of several planned reports assessing readiness for the 2017 General Election. Future editions will cover later phases of the electoral cycle, including election campaigns, election day, counting and results, dispute resolution, and an overall assessment of the administration of the General Election.
AfriCOG is an independent, non-profit organisation that provides research and monitoring on governance and public ethics issues so as to address the structural causes of Kenya’s governance crisis. KPTJ came into being following the 2008 post-election violence to work for electoral justice and accountability for the widespread atrocities and political violence that the country had experienced.
AfriCOG and KPTJ are members of the steering committee of the Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu (KYSY) electoral platform, which actively monitors the electoral process, engages key stakeholders and facilitates dialogue amongst a broad array of stakeholders to promote credible elections.
These include the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the judiciary, political parties and candidates, faith-based organisations, civil society organizations, unions and private sector and employers’ representatives, professional associations and others.
We would like to thank our partners at InformAction for kindly availing their data from their two most recent “Election Watch” publications, which can be found at www.informaction.tv, and which have greatly enriched this report.
As the country now prepares for elections in August 2017, it is important to evaluate what has changed since 2013 and to identify where problems remain. We do this in the belief that true peace cannot be separated from the question of credible, transparent, verifiable elections; in the absence of the latter, the risk of violence rises. Since it is the public that will ultimately
grant legitimacy to the election and therefore to the elected government, it is critical that reliable, objective information and analysis be available. We hope that this report promotes an ever-vigilant public, one that is key to an accountable government and one that serves as the cornerstone of a strong democracy.