IV 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 186 
Congratulating the people of Kenya on their commitment to peaceful elections, 
as demonstrated on March 4, 2013, and calling on Kenyans to come 
together to continue to implement political, institutional, and account-
ability reforms envisioned in the Kenyan constitution. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 26, 2013 
Ms. BASS submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Congratulating the people of Kenya on their commitment 
to peaceful elections, as demonstrated on March 4, 2013, 
and calling on Kenyans to come together to continue 
to implement political, institutional, and accountability 
reforms envisioned in the Kenyan constitution. 
Whereas the Governments of the United States and Kenya 
have long shared a strong bilateral partnership, and 
Kenya plays a critically important role as a cornerstone 
of stability in East Africa and as a valued ally of the 
United States; 
Whereas Kenya’s disputed 2007 presidential election threat-
ened the country’s stability and its democratic trajectory, 
triggering an explosion of violence that resulted in the 
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•HRES 186 IH 
deaths of some 1,140 civilians and displaced nearly 
600,000, some of whom have still not returned home; 
Whereas a mediation effort by former United Nations Sec-
retary-General Kofi Annan and an African Union Panel 
of Eminent African Personalities, supported by the 
United States, led to the signing of the National Accord 
on February 28, 2008, which led to a series of constitu-
tional, electoral, and institutional reforms to address un-
derlying causes of the crisis; 
Whereas, as part of that reform process, the citizens of 
Kenya participated in a national referendum in August 
2010, approving a new constitution that mandated sig-
nificant institutional and structural changes to the gov-
ernment; 
Whereas those constitutional changes have led to important 
reforms in the judicial sector and the electoral system in 
Kenya that aim to build greater public confidence in gov-
ernment institutions, and which demonstrate meaningful 
progress; 
Whereas Kenya’s Independent Commission of Inquiry into 
the Post-Election Violence (the ‘‘Waki Commission’’) con-
cluded from its investigation in 2008 that there had been 
‘‘no serious effort by any government’’ to punish per-
petrators of previous incidents of ethnic and political vio-
lence, leading to a culture of impunity that contributed 
to the crisis that followed the 2007 elections, and, since 
then, despite laudable judicial reforms, few perpetrators 
or organizers of that violence have been held accountable 
for their crimes in Kenyan courts; 
Whereas, based on the findings of the Waki Commission, me-
diator Kofi Annan submitted a list of key suspects to the 
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•HRES 186 IH 
Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal 
Court (ICC) in 2009, and several have been subsequently 
charged at the ICC with crimes against humanity; 
Whereas the Department of State’s 2011 Human Rights Re-
port on Kenya notes, ‘‘Widespread impunity at all levels 
of government continued to be a serious problem. The 
government took only limited action against security 
forces suspected of unlawful killings, and impunity in 
cases of corruption was common. Although the govern-
ment took action in some cases to prosecute officials who 
committed abuses, impunity . . . was pervasive’’; 
Whereas President Barack Obama’s Strategy on Sub-Saha-
ran Africa, released in June 2012, states that the United 
States will not stand by while actors ‘‘. . . manipulate 
the fairness and integrity of democratic processes, and we 
will stand in steady partnership with those who are com-
mitted to the principles of equality, justice and the rule 
of law’’; 
Whereas, in a February 2013 message to the people of 
Kenya, President Obama highlighted the power Kenyan 
communities have to reject intimidation and violence sur-
rounding the upcoming election, resolve disputes in the 
courts as opposed to the streets, and ‘‘move forward to-
wards prosperity and opportunity that unleashes the ex-
traordinary talents of your people’’; 
Whereas, five years after Kenya’s post-election crisis, the 
country held its first general elections under the new con-
stitution on March 4, 2013, which were largely peaceful; 
Whereas Kenya’s presidential candidates and their political 
parties committed themselves to a peaceful electoral proc-
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