The African Union observer mission has expressed its commitment to assist Kenya in ensuring a credible and transparent process in the today’s repeat presidential election.
At a press briefing yesterday in a Nairobi hotel, former South African president Thabo Mbeki who is leading the group said that unlike in the August 8 General election where they focused on tallying of votes in Bomas, today they will instead give more focus to tallying at constituencies’ tallying centers.
Mbeki noted that the observers will extensively monitor tallying centers so as to report as accurately as possible, citing that the group will report new developments
“Last time we did our job despite the Supreme Court ruling but we focused on the tallying process at the Bomas of Kenya. As observers, we would not have been able to see the missing forms on the system but to support our sister country, tallying centers at the constituency level will be our focus,” said Mbeki.
However, Mbeki said that the number of observers deployed is few compared to the recently concluded general election. This comes after three other observer missions, the Carter Centre, the European Union Election Observation Union (EU EOM) and the Commonwealth, scaled down the number of election monitors in the country due to security concerns arising from National Super Alliance’s boycott of election.
Further he urged all political actors, parties and their supporters to create conditions for a peaceful election and refrain from any act of violence.
