The East African Community (EAC) has sent 15 election observation teams to Kenya to observe the general elections scheduled on Tuesday, August 9, reported The New Times.
In a statement, the EAC said the dispatch of the observation teams was flagged off by the head of the EAC election observation mission, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, in Nairobi.
Kikwete, who led Tanzania from 2005 to 2015, said the observers were provided training to enable them to undertake their responsibilities as international observers and as EAC observers.
The EAC mission head said the 52 member observer mission drawn from the EAC member states and the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) had been deployed in 15 teams that will cover various counties in all the regions across the country.
He said the main task for the observers will be to observe ongoing electoral campaigns, observe polling processes on the polling day including results management at the polling stations, and observe tallying, announcement and declaration of results.
Kikwete said after the election the mission will prepare a preliminary report on what it had observed during the electoral process.
The EAC comprises of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Notably, the Kenyan government has declared a nationwide public holiday on Tuesday. Accoridng to Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), over 46,200 polling stations have been set up across the East African country. More than 22 million registered voters in the country of some 54 million are expected to cast their vote to elect their new president, parliament, members of 47 county assemblies and county governors.
Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta is out of the presidential race as he has already served the maximum possible two terms.
The two main contenders for the post of the president are William Ruto, Kenya’s deputy president since 2013 and leader of the United Democratic Alliance, and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who heads the Orange Democratic Movement.
