1998 Working conference

By late 1997 Kenyans had voted twice in elections since the arrival of democracy on the African continent in the early 1990s. Having taken the lessons of 1992 to heart, local observer groups and the international community embarked on a new model for election observation in Africa. From the earliest stages in 1997, Western embassies devised various observation methods to obtain a more comprehensive and in-depth insight into the electoral process, not just limited to Election Day.

Domestic observer groups, including the Churches, received financial support to train and deploy almost 30,000 local observers, while the international community employed diplomats stationed at the embassies and guided by a small election observation centre of specialists on Kenyan politics and election observation. The observation results and the Kenyan election outcome were discussed at a three day conference at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, held on 28-30 September with the support of a grant from the Dutch Embassy in Nairobi. Over twenty specialists on Kenyan politics, local and international observers, international diplomats and Kenyan scientists reviewed the elections in detail, debating both technical as well as regional aspects of the elections and the observation methods. Their views were heard by an audience, that included representatives of Dutch and foreign NGOs, foreign ministries and Kenyans in the Netherlands, among them the Kenyan ambassador, Dr. Yusuf Nzibo. Prof. Kivutha Kibwana, chairman of the National Convention Executive Council (NCEC) in Kenya, a platform for several groups in the Kenyan society campaigning for a review of the constitution, also attended, courtesy of HIVOS.

In this open-minded and stimulating environment, participants enthusiastically evaluated Kenyan politics and the election observation, happy to skip tea breaks, to take a short lunch and continue till late. Draft chapters presented by the authors for a book publication to appear in the course of 2001, were discussed and commented upon, the object being to provide a better understanding of the outcome of the Kenyan elections and to explain the new model for election observation.