From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:KENYA: ELECTORAL COMMISSION DRAGGING ITS FEET, OBSERVERS SAY
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 07:30:31 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: North America
Title: KENYA: ELECTORAL COMMISSION DRAGGING ITS FEET, OBSERVERS SAY


nairobi, dec 2 (ips) -- a pre-election observer mission from the
united states has criticised kenya's electoral commission for
''poor administration, acting secretively and tilting the
playing field in the direction of the ruling party''.

three officials of the washington-based international human
rights law group, have accused the commission of ''flawing the
electoral process'' in a 30-page report released here tuesday.

''the electoral commission has acted with extreme
secretiveness and seems ill-prepared for the election'', says
the report compiled by patrick macroy from britain, jorgen
elklit of denmark and rafael sabat mendez from chile,

the report is based on their findings during discussions with
kenyans, including officials of political parties, churches and
local monitoring units, ahead of the dec. 29 first multiparty
elections in 26 years.

the law group is affiliated to the international commission
of jurists based in geneva.

although the elections are drawing near, the commission has
not identified polling stations. two commission members last
month accused its chair, zachariah chesoni, of poor leadership
and outright partisanship.

many of the criticisms levelled at the commission have
already been voiced by opposition parties competing to get the
kenya african national union (kanu) out of power.

''but the fact that these outside observers have seen for
themselves and made the same conclusions lend credence to our
complaints,'' said professor anyang nyang of the forum for the
restoration of democracy (ford-kenya) party.

without an adequate number of observers, anyang nyang thinks
the monitoring of kenya's elections will be difficult.

the observer law group has confirmed that the electoral
commission disenfranchised a large number of kenyans by reducing
the registration period from three months to barely a month.

also, the voters' registers have not been made available for
public inspection as required by law.

''the electoral registers contain many errors, which will
cause confusion on polling day and may prevent significant
numbers of electors from voting'', says the group's report.
(more/ips)


kenya: electoral (2)

it accuses the government and the commission of ''acting in
such a manner that an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust has
arisen''.

the report calls on the international community which played
a crucial role in forcing president daniel arab moi and his
party to accept the plural system, to continue its watch on the
progress to democracy.

one of the human rights lawyers told ips wednesday that the
government was using the issuance of permits to deny opposition
parties a free hand in electioneering.

macroy said the observer group recommends that political
rally permits be abolished or the period of notification for
such gatherings be reduced to 24 hours instead of 14 days.

''the administration should speed up the processing of the
applications. for those turned down reasons should be given in
writing'', he added.

unless polling stations were selected and agreed without
further delay, election officials properly trained, the division
of voters' registers by polling stations and the marking of
ballot boxes completed, it would be difficult to ensure a smooth
and fairly free election, the group observed.

''it might be helpful if the commission were to publish a
timetable indicating when it is planning to take each of these
actions'', the report adds. (end/ips/ha/ar/92)