Transcripts For CSPAN Kenya Elections 20170816

To our kenyan election review, some weeks ago, we did a kenyan election preview and im not sure many of our forecasts or predictions came to pass, which is maybe a good thing. Happy that we have a panel consisting of two distinctive journalists who have following the campaign and the election in kenya and going to introduce them in just a moment. My name is mark bellamy and im atenior advisor for africa ces i. S. I was ambassador in nairobi and i had the good fortune to spend several weeks in naomi in nairobi prior to this weeks election. I want to start with a few remarks to frame the discussion and then turn to our guests. You in this room know, last week, some 15 million kenyans went to the polls to elect a president not to elect members of parliament, to elect and aors to 49 counties number of other office holders. By any standard and certainly by african standards, this was a onlykable event, if because of the thousands of Campaign Appearances by because ofandidates, the passionate participation of such a large part of the kenyan also because of the technological sophistication of the entire process, including the speedy electronic tallying of votes on election day. As you all know, the incumbent president one the presidency with a margin of victory that was larger than predicted in any poll, but not outside the realm of ability. Opposition, the leader has rejected the results, claiming these elections were rigged. The genuinely believed he had the numbers this time to win and many kenyans and International Observers believe that as well. Certaind that he was that the incumbents would stop againhing to rob him yet of an electoral victory. And 23rdke in 2007 team, hes struggling to convince observers that these elections were seriously flawed. Angry protests have erected in some nairobi slums and parts of hisern kenya that are strongholds, but there is little to suggest a repeat of the ethnicbased violence that followed the calamitous 2007 elections. Most of the deaths thus far in this unrest i think can be attributed to quicktriggered Kenyan Security forces. Point, it isis probably a good idea for all of us to urge restraint on all restraint in terms of putting some owners in the street and to the kenyan government keeping security versus on a short leash. Most International Observers weekly gave the thumbsup to these elections. The white house has issued a meant congratulating the president on his victory. Theenya, apart from oppositions editable rejection of the results, some legitimate doubts remain. Forms signed by Election Officials and artie agents at each polling station and in each constituency county center counting center meant to confirm yetresults have not incompletely and publicly released. For the Election Commission to say dont worry, we have these forms in hand is not good enough. To put the final seal of approval on these elections, these forums need to be posted on its website or otherwise made available for public scrutiny and without that final step, Public Confidence in the Electoral Commission which was a problem throughout the campaign, this lack of confidence will indoor and suspicions about will likelyrigging also indoor. Confess that some of my predictions about this election did not come to pass. And in many ways, im relieved they did not. It was very easy to imagine scenarios whereby this election, which was acrimonious throughout and thought to be exceptionally disorder andnd in possibly widespread violence. That would have in a severe setback for kenyas young democracy and for kenyans eager to exercise and test their rights under kenyas nook on tuition. Happily, those worstcase scenarios did not materialize. I may also have been wrong in protecting a clean, fair, credible electoral process regardless of who one would be a big boost psychologically for all of kenya and would have the effect of bringing communities closer together. I was probably a little too idealistic making that assumption. The aftermath of this election, clean, fair and credible though it may prove to be seems to be trending in a different direction and not necessarily one leading to greater inclusiveness and social cohesion. It may be too early to draw that conclusion but it may not be too soon to worry the victors would crack down on civil society, a move that recalls some of the low points that followed the won election, and election by the incumbent. Would to turn to our two guests. Im delighted we have with us to give journalists from distinguished journalists from voice of america who have discovered you have covered the Kenyan Campaign and electoral process. Direct me to my right, the managing editor of the the ole english to Africa Service and tv host to the africa 54 program. He is a versatile journalist with more than 20 years of experience working in africa, europe, and the u. S. He has covered Many International Stories International conferences and interviewed many prominent figures. He covered this election in kenya on the ground, arriving some weeks or days before the election and staying through the electoral process. Its great to have you with us. To his right, a native tanzanian, chief of the the ole swahili service. He started his career as a journalist in tanzania and joined the ole in 1994 and has traveled widely through africa and reported from many corners of africa. He was one of the first andnalists to visit darfur report on the story internationally act in 2004. Holds bachelors, match bachelors, masters and dr. Degrees. Ranet up and organize and the network of the away correspondence in place in kenya to cover this election. , thank you both for agreeing to join us and if i can , i would like to turn to you for your impressions and comments on this election. Our guests will speak for a while and then we will open this up to your comments and questions. Good afternoon. Tois a pleasure and delight be invited here to talk about this historic election in kenya. It was such an event and it was. Reat to be on the ground as ambassador bellamy has mentioned, the predictions and sony things that happened for, i can only say having been monitoring it up to the elections, it was an exciting time in kenya. Stakes wereuse the so high, the incumbent was running to make sure he could could secure a second term. It means a lot to him and his supporters. For the Opposition Leader, it has and concluded that this was his only chance to make it and heard a keyt, i will be taking his retirement from politics. Know if he will confirm that, so it was interesting to be on the ground and observe the campaign and try to listen to what they are saying about why they wanted to be elected. About 10 days before the actual voting day. The campaigns were all over the country, sometimes crisscrossing each other trying to get the very last vote particularly from the areas where they believed they had many undecided voters or did not do so well last time. It was almost impossible to the night thate i was traveling there, i did not realize a very important key person on the Electoral Commission had just disappeared andi woke up to that news that the ict management and Boundaries Commission had gone missing and , thediscovered murdered timing could not have then burst the timing could not have in worse. All the speculation about the confidence one could have in the commission an error accusations that there were schemes to infiltrate and manipulate the process. The death ofck of everyone ist now wondering whether it was directly linked to the election was just a few days away and that changed the narrative revolving around security of the to transmitystems the election results. As we continue trying to understand what was happening and the authorities are investigating, we continued, nevertheless, to observe the last two days of the campaign which were a frenzy of activities and tried to listen closely to see if we could speak out on what was the major platforms for these two different campaigns. Especially talking about the big candidate. There were some independent candidate, but i dont inc. They featured much on the campaign trail. Most of them in the city of nairobi. One of them told me they expected to be at the statehouse on tuesday, though he spent most of his time in nairobi. Listening to the two campaigns, you did not really get a lot in terms of the platform. The Ruling Coalition took credit on the campaign trail for what has been done, especially in the area of infrastructure development. They took credit for the projecttation of those remarkable was the train from mombasa to nairobi and a net work of highways, some of them were completed and some are still under construction and a set of you elect us, we will definitely complete the job and therefore, they took care of what they have done but what they havent done by using that as a call to allow them to complete the job. The opposition at the time tried to convince the voters they could do something because they did not have anything to show what they would do, nothing to make any reference to. You could see the challenge trying to convince the voters that they have a better plan. Journalist, ias a was trying to look for some complete plans with a strategy of whether its an Economic Development or otherwise, but you really did not see much. Insults, there was some dancing on the campaign trail and some entertainment there. The day came and it was very. Ell organized and illustrated we went around to the polling in thes, a fantastic job election went on well. There were a few problems here and there, delays, and a few missing things but, on the whole , i think election day was a success. There were a few complaints about irregularities. Because the Electoral Commission promised everyone would be allowed to vote, they p. M. Ed to vote until 8 after the polls closed at 5 p. M. So it was interesting to observe and the result that was streaming in was being streamed live on the screens of the Election Commission and it did not take long before we saw this cap between the incumbent and the Opposition Leader and soon after that, the Opposition Leader said those numbers are fake and set off all of this and the transmission whether they were credible theers on the screen and opposition almost threatened to stall the whole process. That is generally what i could share with you just as an overview of what the process was before, during and after the election. Thank you for sharing the review. Im going to go back a little bit to showing how we as the Africa Division of the voa prepared for this election. We felt this was a very alsotant election and demonstrating how far kenya has distance itself from 207. 207. Those are things people were interested in. We decided we are going to go to nairobi and i led a team of five trainers. Two weeks in nairobi and mombasa and trained a total of 35 streamers. Not all of them were from kenya. We pulled journalist from ethiopia, south sudan, uganda, tozania and mostly kenyans do some training on election coverage and really dig into the issue of activity because this was surely going to come in the elections. There was a lot of concern about media was kinde of caught in the middle not to you have concern but to say theres an elephant in the room and the delicate allens there. We wanted to deal with it so we did this training on all plot digitaladio, tv, and content. For five days in nairobi and later, we went to mombasa and did a lot of social media. Raining social media, we will come back to this. Social media was very important to this election and we wanted to address that before the elections. During the elections, we had a total of 10 streamers and then as vincent went and we had people in mombasa and nairobi, so we had very good coverage across the country. Talking about the election sure wewe just made captured the mood and what is going on. One thing that comes out is the confidence the people of kenya had for these elections because people came out in big numbers and they were there from the night, you could see people shivering in the cold of nairobi at midnight waiting to vote. Moment if iseminal could call it that way when the first lady of kenya stood in line for hours to vote. Got in line and did not vote until 10 00 a. M. It was a lot of expect haitians and confidence among the people that they wanted to do this right and they did their part. In terms of showing up and voting and going home and ofting for the results, course when the results came, i having followed up before the elections and you talked about this also, almost all the opinion polls were showing a few days before the elections, the two candidates were net and neck. But when the results started few hours, just a jumped to a one million lead and never relinquished it till the end. With the speedd of how he jumped so far ahead so fast but i was not surprised you one. Today, there is raking news. He promised a big announcement pins andation was on needles waiting for this announcement and today, he announced hes going to court, the victory was Computer Generated and how the figures were cooked and there were nonexistent polling stations. I think the nation breathed a sigh of relief when that announcement is made because a lot of people think thats the most civilized way to go through this kind of argument. Go through the court system and judiciary and get a resolution on this. Today, one of our online storylists at voa wrote a which shows kenyans voted mainly along geographic and ethnic lines, which is no surprise. From predominant ethnic groups and in the six counties where the main group, he received 97 of the vote. Hat was also knows the prize if you follow kenyan politics, you know ethnic affiliation is very strong and there were inilar differences evident he northeastern provinces countiest of fort teen thats his stronghold, so only on the eastern province,. Hat is where it was with these numbers, there will be more numbers coming out and it was a window into how we go ahead and analyze these elections, but they are giving is a synopsis of how this election went. To kenyata and jubilee team took credit some of them started in previous theyistrations and campaigned mostly on promises. You have to remember that it was put together just a few months ago in april. Theere in nairobi then and , whoition was scrambling do we put as our candidate . Thats when they formed their coalition, in april. From april to august to get their platform and message out there that could eat the jubilee platform and it was a tough job could. Y did all they these candidates traveled across the nation. Kenyataer a time when was traveling and he got a feeling of what regular kenyans feel traveling across the country. I will stop there and we can come back to some of the other areas of interest there. I dont want to get into your covered the elections and maybe he will say a little something. Thank you and good afternoon. With vincentairobi there from go. Ht a week before election day and we were able to see what was going on in terms of preparations. I went to most of the very last on both sidesies, and because im a native of seen most of them, i have seen all these president s from the latest president i did not vote for them because i i iittle young, but jubilees timein because i was here and i have seen it all. What i would say from a journalistic perspective point of view. Of preparing. How also having gone to whether current president cast his ballot on the eighth of this month. This is probably the best election, in terms of preparation up to that point. What happened after the voting happened is a story for another day. Really, i cannot claim to know everything. Heard,as you have somethings happened that are not according to the opposition, things happened that they are not happy with. I was telling him earlier, i he has done is really the right thing. Not privy towe are so what waslking happening behind the scenes of counting the exact votes. It created an opportunity for us through the judicial system whether things happened, or whether they did not happen. Or whether they are just crying for no good reason. If there is a specific issue that we may need to talk about, i would be more than happy to share. Thank you. Point. Is a good i just want to underline that, i think most observers certainly most observers i have taught to would agree that this was an exceptionally wellrun election. Particularly when contrasted with previous attempts when you had severe technical breakdowns, which then have led to an absence of Public Confidence in the process. Technical breakdowns were nine were not in issue. I am not sure technology was an answer. This was a big improvement for kenya. Before we go to our questions into the audience, i would like to ask vincent a question or two about the media, and the medias coverage of the election in kenya. You had teams all over the country. Can you share with us a little , or thoseou tell us reporters on the field did they have free access . Were they able to get to the polling stations . Were they able to talk to officials and voters . And were voters willing to talk to journalists, and willing to share their experience with journalists . Secondly, we are working anongside canyon media keny media and International Journalist to come in for this event. Maybe you can share with us about how the media covered this. Did the media do the right job in terms of truly telling the story of this election . If we had a creditor nation, we did not have a problem accessing any place. We are able to go to any of the important areas we wanted to visit. Us for theped telling of the results. We had access to the commissions telling center. There was no restrictions. There was any problem speaking with either the participants in the campaigns, the politicians. Were movinges around too much, especially president ial candidates pinning them down for a sitdown interview was a big challenge. The priorities were elsewhere. They wanted to appeal to the protests. That was a big challenge. As regards of how the other media houses covered, i observed them closely. One of the things, and i know we tried our best to do a good job, free space, in terms of media, after the fighting many of them fighting to have free expression. In a way, i feel like looking at out, alllections work of the time before the actual elections were covered, this opportunity there. Strong, wellt many researched investigative journalistic highquality pieces out there. Routedia took the easier having several panelists and the studios. They were just talking about what politicians upset out there. Many times he would see what was reported as one site said, then the response from the other side. No Serious Investigation into how truthful are those statements. Whether they are claims of certain developments. Build 300, or 3000 facilities, you wanted to go out and see if that is really true and see when sudden claims are made against the other side, how fair and truthful some of those claims were by the government. It may not had the results, but you felt like there was something missing and helping to reform the citizenry of some of these claims, and really making a Fair Assessment of where the country is five years after the last elections. In terms of whether it is climate development, creation,ural, Countryside Development money allocated to the development of local counties have been utilized. You do not see a lot of really good serious reporting. Understand,i dont but i personally felt like there were opportunities lost during that period. What you agree with have said, in terms of our the performance of the media. Let me go back to our own reporters. We did not get any problems. Mediapared with a kenyan before hand. And every place we went we got office. They were in the middle as a rescuer. Maybe you want to talk about that. That was after the elections. The government was very sensitive about coverage. Especially of any protest. Our east african respondent was based in the robie and was nairobi and was arrested one of those days. The headquarters to be interviewed over why she was there. They made some claim that she to been seen bribing people cause chaos. Of course that did not happen, that was not the case. We had to go and try to get out of jail. That was born of oversensitivity. F covering any appearance the government had been very sensitive about that. See very serious censorship of the local media. Ofost across the board coverage of demonstration around the city and around the country. It was a little bit of that. It comes from the events of 2007. I personally think the 2007 balance traumatize the country. Monstert created this where everybody is so terrified around election time that you do not want to show any elemental feelce because there was a that it could, not only bring memories, but insight people to commit such crimes. I think even the local media we also had our limitations. We only have two hours a day on air. English to africa, you have four. Ours a day we have limitations in terms of time on being on air. The local the local media has a lot more time. You have to agree that the local media was under heavy pressure, in terms of not to be seen to insight any kind of violence. To them, i think, checking themselves into, what did they cover, how do they cover it. There was not a lot of fact checking. Say, thathe creditors was being reported without any kind of fact checking. There are some are sure chance. During our training, we brought and a gentleman from an Organization Called africa trek. An organization in africa called africa check. They are doing a good job, in terms of teaching journalists how to fact check, even within a eriod of time. That was missing. Work withmedia had to this delicate balance of being socially responsible, and also, calling it as it is. Think, if i was to think, if ia verdict, i would say they were working on being socially responsible then calling the story as it is. Socially responsible, ok. Thank you. Lets open this up to questions or comments from our audience. I would just ask that you identify yourself and your organization. That this istoo all on the record. We are completely transparent today. This is in on the record discussion. So, yes sir. One and two, you will go second. Ok, thank you. Thank you very much. This is a very stimulating panel. I have been going in and out of kenya since 1980 when i was a fulbright scholar. One of the things that is always troubling about kenya is, there are these extrajudicial killings. I think back to and some other charismatic politicians. Alluded to the murder of this gentleman who works for the Electoral Commission. I was just wondering, neither one of you have addressed that, if you could bring us uptodate on any news you might have about the Police Investigation into this murder, and does it look like it wasnt extrajudicial killing . What do you know about it today . Thank you. Take that question and we will add another one. With ngo thatk works with kenya and ethiopia. Younted to ask a question started to talk about regarding the counties. Certainly one of the stories we have heard about, kind of more of an academic forum. It is a story about counties, certainly, this is the first democratic transition of counties. This is the first election since since the second election the first election five years ago. Powers, and as more counties,pumped into i am wondering, what is the untold story there . Certainly, we can generalize about ethnicities and groups in these counties, will be know that a lot of them many counties are heterogenous. The impactsng what are being felt across the country are . That question and you do the counties question. On. Death is still going officially, that is what we are told. Timing of his death, his disappearance, murder was really disturbing. The fact that this gentlemandisy disturbing. Was chemin in terms of how the a managers of that Security System worked. , at he disappeared and died that time, there was a lot of speculation that it could be political. Around the time there were some stories that were talking about triangles, because he got killed with a young lady with him. There was a lot of speculations. The iabc was quick to come out notsay his death will affect the credibility of the Computer System with the iebc. With the investigation, unless there is new news, the investigation so far is still going on. So, we do not know. [indiscernible] died washe reason he to cover sorry, that he died because he had some information that was very critical and somebody wanted that information. To gett have been used it to the systems. Therefore, this is certainly something we would get more of when they go to court. His name mr. Will come up in court. As he says, that is what we know for now, at least from the official position from the government and the iebc. First, we know two or three things. Andas murdered, tortured, the police launched an investigation. Toew people arrested, but up now the investigations are ongoing. We do not know why he was killed. Nobody can say for sure why he was killed, that is why we stand and we wait and see. That is at least from a generalist at perspective. That is where we are. We cannot speculate too much. For the history of canyons kenyans with how well the country quickly resolves highprofile murders, unless something changes in the future, i dont figure has been a great record of quickly resolving issues. Many of the time some have been forgotten. We dont get to know who murdered who and why. That is critical, who did it and they didid it why it gets lost in space and time. We hope somebody will get to the bottom of this and we will eventually know who killed him and why they killed him. Taking the question of the years,s, for many, many kenyans have been clamoring for a system that could allow developments to be the management of the counties of their local areas of byisdiction to be managed their own people in their own area. I think the county system is the best thing that ever happened to kenya. Now with the devolved system of government, funds are allocated to the different counties. Counties act just like the states in the united states. Every county has a governor, representatives, and has officials that run the different projects within the county. Developments in a different region of the country. Some have done really well and there is a good spirit of Competition Among governors to do better than the other guys. Few of them have been doing a fantastic job. Accusations of massive corrections kiss ofrybody has massive corrections kiss everybody has control of a fund and the local area. There have been accusations of some of the local officials pocketed. That has been unfortunate and across the board. Some have accused governors and officials that are members of the opposition parties, of corruption. Some of the same ruling correlation have been sick same corruption. It is something that is seen as common among officials. That is the downside. Other than that, i think the counties a good thing that in terms ofkenyans holding leaders accountable, now it is localized. The president used to have to determine what happened in which part of the country, but now local leaders determine what happened to the funds that are sent to the different counties. Let me just add a couple of things to those to those on we do notng of know who the author of this particular crime were. We do know that kenya has not just kenya, but kenya has something of a history of disappearance and assassination of political figures, prominent lawyers, human rights activists, witnesses, that happens. Even by those standards, it seems to me this crime was particularly grazing and shocking. It was meant to have an effect. This was not a casual kind. This is not someone hijacked at 3 00 a. M. In downtown nairobi whose body was found in the gorilla forest the next morning. This was meant to send a signal of some kind. We just do not know exactly what the signal was. , in some ways, it casts a shadow over this election. In some ways, some of the enduring recollections of what will turn out to be a historically free and fair election, and there will be this unexplained murder. What thing it does send, that is indisputable is want of immunity. Im sure whoever did this crime acted confident and within your sense of impunity. A near perfect sense of impunity. Vincent pointed out, these were some of the most highly contested races. Authority ton of counties was not entirely a popular idea, at least in nairobi after the new constitution was passed. There was a slowness in implementing putting the machine in place. I think there is a great deal of Popular Support in kenya for the devolution of power. A lot of popular enthusiasm in terms of voting for their constituent representatives and governors and so forth. Ofs is a lot of money, a lot resources being pushed out of the county. There is a huge bill that goes along with that. Bill, the service salaries being paid in kenya have led to a lot of complaints that this is maybe a great experiment in democracy, but it is hugely expensive. Stakes are high at the local level, salaries are high, resources are there, these are highly contested as the national races. I saw a poll maybe this is a poll nick showed me. Kenyon voters were asked which of the six ballots you are voting casting are the most important to you . As you would expect, most said the president. The second most important was theireir member constituent assembly. Which is their county legislator. Thatis an interesting sign there is a certain degree of Popular Support of county level government. If i may, one of the promising things, the big advantage you see on the ground forn you are in kenya those of us who come from the , when young people finish school they all go to nairobi, they all go to the capital city because that is where the jobs are. Now you have young people that go back to their counties because they know their money is there. Even if they have an idea that they wanted to implement in nairobi, they say let me go back so that i can establish a business there because there is funds coming from there. That is a very positive outcome on these counties. Break point. On the issue of the races, i think it happened at this time in the president ial race. The focus was on the president ial race. Story and itg subdued in some way to whatevers happening at the county level. He said that was an important race for residents of those counties. To governor meant much more them and some degree more than the president of the nation. Perhaps theeday, president ial race will be done at a different time and it will make a difference. Sir yes, sir. Thank you. Want to ask if you try to reconcile that claim of rigging, or the fact that the jubilee majority. Absolute in mombasa parliament, government, senator, and even women. ,re you saying that in addition that the president also leaked other members of all the people campaigning for those seats . That thewe have is party is a bigger majority than in the last parliament. You are actually voting for six persons, six elections in one. Then, after today, that there is not a Single Member of parliament, senator, government who have disputed those results. Everybody, there is the same election. Results for all the six voices of the competition. I think we need to see how you can reconcile that claim of rigging. We are officially at 4000 election observers and the official number was exactly 8000. They went around to all the politicians. U. S. , african, u. S. Embassy in kenya was on the observer team. They have all given a clean certificate, not a single reservation on the results. How can we reconcile the claim for reading . Rigging . Sadly, all of the candidates m the two teams, they had at the polling station. The two copies of the results at the polling station through their mobile phones. Agents, not 40,000 a single one of them have come up to claim that the results that they took the police station. The ones being announced are different. How can we reconcile that . About we just mentioned it is very clear. Yes, there was an attempt to hack the system, but it was not successful. Case, the presiding officers did not get them until one or two days before the election. Nobody had those. Out,ver they may had given it was actually not very material. I would say the investigations have been conducted by the police. They have now tried to figure between 11 00 p. M. And 3 00 a. M. All the other times are accounted for. About could talk more. Hat rigging and the allegation it doesnt go well with the facts that are on the ground. Lastly, i was there for the election, i voted. Can tell you out of all the elections, i think this was one of the most well organized elections. It took me less than 30 seconds to vote. Thank you. You did much better than the first lady. She was alive for four hours. For fours in line hours. I am willing to take on one of those questions. I hope we did not create an impression that i own that claim of rigging. As dont think we as journalists have made any issue on the claim rigging. G all we do is we reported on what the opposition candidate has said. He made setting claims, and we, as reporters reported on his claims and the responses from the ibc on how they secured their systems. Any evidence, whatsoever that there was any rigging. We cannot take sides on whether ebc is 100 right on anything they are saying. What we observed is that those with thein place that, they had the system cannot be with those attempts. By aims that were made or are being made by at this point, none of us have any , as regardsy have orthe rigging attempts, hacking of the system. We never saw anything, we have not shown any documents, or anything that confirm any of those. We look forward to observing the proceedings in court. Perhaps we will get some revelation as to what really happened. As journalists doing our job, we do not necessarily pick sides and embrace those accusations. We just reported on what we heard and we waited to see if there was anybody who could produce evidence. I think that is why we are not tothat the decision go to court was the best decision for the nation. Kenyattaidentelect asked the position. If youre not happy with the results, go to court. The fact that they are going to court, everything will come out in the open. That will resolve it. Each side is studying their claim. The official results, jubilee has won the election and that is where it stands at the moment. It is also making everything so transparent. Everything that has not been made transparent so far will be made transparent. Iebc toay called on the make i think there is some 34a or b which have not been posted on the iebc systems. That is all about making sure there is transparency and results. That is just one of the points. In terms of the entire process, in terms of the numbers in parliament, governorships and , one of the things that one needed to recognize is that the dynamics are really different. Performedf how they with the president ial race and the other races, it is true that the campaign was different. We mentioned a little earlier that the jubilee correlation had a very well oiled machine on the ground because they have been around in the last election. They have been literally campaigning for the last election. The Opposition Coalition is very new outfit. They were trying to find themselves, trying to figure out how to move ahead, therefore they had disadvantages. In all fairness, the jubilee correlation did an amazing job on the ground, focusing on areas where they did very poorly last time. See that they performed well, in terms of the local races. Parliament, senators and governors, there was no dispute. Not many people have disputed the victories of some of those officials from the Ruling Coalition of the opposition. The dynamics were completely different this time than 2007, or even 2013. I want to thank you, ambassador, for being here, and also for your comments this afternoon. I guess one prediction we could have all made before the selection was that, it was going to end up in the courts. Regardless of which side appeared to win, which side claimed victory, even in this case with what appears to be a very clearcut defensive by president kenyatta and jubilee, it was going to end up in the courts. That is not necessarily a bad ink. At the end of the day, it seems to me, what matters is how broadly are kenyans. Whether theyd particularly those on the losing end of it. Anything they can be done to achieve that result, and , particularly the losing side to the result. It is worth pursuing that. I think the Court Process might in the end have that beneficial effect. Am wondering what your recent crackdown postelection on the recent rights that are operating . Everybody had suspicions that the timing of cracking down on they probably have heard that that was reversed, the government requested the ngo coordinating slide for now,t for the next 90 days. It claims they had not been paying taxes without permits. I personally am not privy to all details, whether they have issues with the taxes, or employment. I do not know about that. Happening after a certain time can be seen a suspicious. , when heeculated that said it will not go to court, that they probably would go by proxy through some of those organizations. One of the two people are the ones that have banned, or were nearly banned until that ban was lifted. You wantcions to why crackdown on the organizations at this moment, but at the same time, we do not know. Whether truly, perhaps they had committed some of this these crimes. Thank you for sharing your experience. I think there would be no elections without the people of kenya. Do you thinkg, Water Education and this is a question for you vincent. I say that because i think, in the past you can easily convince convince people of something bid on want to do and they would fall for you. Do you think we underestimated the will of the people of kenya when it comes to postelection environments . The whole world that we would have postelection environments. I am wondering how much credit can we give them themselves . Tried, but it was affectively, as and in good times. That is why we had so many spoiled ballots. 70 k they were close to 300,000. They said it was because, quite a number of people get Voter Education. They made a mistake. Some of them were like cases where they said a person would put a line in one box and it kind of flows to the other box and it becomes one ballot. There are issues also with helping people who have disabilities, including blind people and others who could not possibly identify who they were electing. An agreement in kenya that Voter Education has not been combating and a faction that would be satisfactory to all. That is something everybody agrees. In terms of balance, personally, i was very optimistic that there wont be any widespread violence. Most International Media went in expecting to employee. We knew there would be a few but mostere and there, kenyans have no appetite for violence. Even if they perceive anything in the system. As i mentionedkenyans have no ar violence. Earlier, kenyans were traumatized by the events in 2007. I am not too old, but i dont the queen have seen anything close to 2007. After that time, majority of theans will not allow country to slide back. Whatever happened during this election. Voters who are determined to step was the ballot and maintain the peace. We do have a few protesters here and there, that was expected, it will always happen. Kenya is not about to burn up. Happen, think it will it does not matter who tries to incite them into violence. While they are waiting for that, everything considered, i completely agree with you. I think the first winners are kenyan people. Almost 80 of older turnout. You dont get that tests of voter turnout. Turnout. Er you dont get that in other countries, you dont get that in the u. S. To do that and exercise their rights, that was a display of knowledge, of knowing that this is our right and we have to go out there and exercise it. Definitely they were the first winners. Also, i think that the fact that there was no widespread violence it is ae, i think prediction that we probably wont see anything like 2007 ever again. Electionovered the before the elections, there was a lot of efforts by human young musicians. Even young musicians. Music theye this called kenya flavor, these artist. They were releasing a lot of videos on peace during the elections. That was a major of this is what we were expecting. And it got that way to an extent. What i wanted to say, but also to a large extent, whether the end of the campaign, they came out and there was effort even from the government itself, even sending those messages of peace. I remember president kenyatta, two of his meetings he was to not get into situations where people would fight. Meeting, a was all peace. It was all peace. At all goes towards the same matches same message of peace. It is unlikely that kenya is going to weaken. Wider whiter now. Kenyans are much wiser. They know that if they are taught, they will think twice. Think we have times for a couple more questions. We will come to you second then. I have previous sentiments especiallyking someone who does not know much about the kenyan election. I know i has been dubbed the chopper election. And that there has been an estimated 90 helicopters registered for politicians to campaign in different parts of the country, which reflects a growing disparity between politicians and the people. And questions the feasibility of people from lower statuses being able to run for office. I recognize the are any that statement, and that i. S. And american have a billionaire as the president. I, as an american have a billionaire as the president. If you could predict any you seeng trends that in the future of how future elections will be handled. Thank you. We will take a second question. My name is gabriel, i work with a contractor. Before the election, the terrorist group has promised to disrupt the election by any possible means. I was wondering if there had ,een attempts for them to do so and whether or not they were successful at a local level . Thank you. Maybe i will take the one on the campaign techniques. Campaignssidential had become a very much helicopter affair. There was a lot of money being spent on the campaign rallies. I thinkhe things that the media missed out on, just looking at how much money is being spent out there. Whether that was digging into the disparities between those who have and does and those who dont. If you look at those who have a percopter estimating 3000 hour. And for months and months we saw helicopters landing in places. Force on a big show of the campaign trail. Unfortunately there is no transparencies to how much money is being spent, where it is coming from. In many cases, this is a way to kind of question why we have such a disparity between those who have money, and those who do not have. There is so much poverty and these places just blow off in the faces of thousands of poor people and they just fly away after giving them a few promises. That could have also been used to discuss the question of, how well we are doing economically. In some cases, some of the politicians fly to these places and back because they have no good roads. Ideally couldve been a basis to do a story on the Economic Development on the ground and how much money is being spent by politicians to combat this campaign. Some people have said that the reason why we have a lot of corruption in the system is, after spending so much money, some have to try to recoup this and the and sub coming through unacceptable means. I think it is a very legitimate question. Another,k that is regulationsural that could be put in place, Financial Disclosure and terms of how much money is being spent. In many african countries there are no real regulations when it comes to how you collect your campaign money, how you spend it. More, they collect can spend as much as they want. Nobody knows where this money is coming from. Maybe that could be another in termskenya politics institutions to getting wrote credible elections. Threats with no reported incidents of them attacking close to the elections, or close to the election day. We are watching that very closely, but i think there was , but theyt today werent successful with disturbing the election. Runup to thee election there was a claim that the government was framing soldiers for the election. The government clarified that we were living in a time of that threat from alshabab and some of the training being offered was to make sure the elections would take place peacefully and there would be mass security. They could take credit for that. It has provided enough to have the election take place, even in some of those counties, fairly peacefully. Nobody was intimidated, nobody failed to go to the polling station. In some ways, there had been in attacks, mostly bomb attacks on military convoys along the border. Precursor to a bigger alshabab effort to disrupt the elections. For whatever reason that did not occur. An interesting subject of analysis of why did not occur. Were not capable, because they elected not to do it, because the Security Services turned it off and contained in, i do not know. I put out a couple of things. Politics are so demonstrative and candidates traveling hundreds of thousands of kilometers. One big rally to the next in every corner of the country. Even by american standards, lot of money changes hands. People need to be transport paid for, meals paid for. I was always struck by these giant lorries on the road clogged with young men with their banners jamming the highways in support of their candidates. One thing i would say as well is, most important kenyan politicians and even down to the and membersernor, of constituent assembly have fairly sizable security entourages. Are sometimeses formal, with armed bodyguards, sometimes they are left formal and sometimes there are entourages that assemble for mrs. , then they are not there the next day. Before the election there was a worry that, given the stakes and intensity of this campaign, there was a risk this would spill over to filing clashes between armed groups before the election. That did not happen. The campaign itself did not spill over into the kind of violence that you might have feared in a charged atmosphere like this, were so many people are running around with guns. Some like a description of the united states. [laughter] for maybe ae time couple more questions . I am an associate with csis here. I was wondering if you could speak more about the police killings. The ticket lili if this looks like it was directed from the or if it was more triggerhappy policeman. Whether or not investigating on that whether or not they are investigating on that front . A woman here, sorry i cannot get to everybody. High. Kathleen went the International Republican institute. Regarding women in this election. While there was some success stories, first women being elected to the governor seats, we still see andly low percentage representation of you sent women who represent the large portion of the kenyan population. So much so that, at the national level, the parliament and those seats do not meet the constitutional requirement of the two thirds gender role. Speak about the dynamic of women in this election and what might need to happen to have broader representation Going Forward . Very quickly on the evidence there was no of there being an order from above to kill citizens. I think as the ambassador mentioned before, might be triggerhappy. Always trying to crowd these demonstrations, but there is no evidence that anybody gave in order to go and kill citizens in any place. Your question on women, in fact, women perform so well for the first time, kenyan has female governors. Three female governors, and three female senators. Did fairly well. One of them is an entertainer who is now a ember of parliament. I cannot remember all of their names, but i think there is a progression towards embracing more Women Leaders and young leaders. Financial factor where our campaign is determined by how much money you have. Wonof the young fellows who is i forget the number. He is been a duden of the university of nairobi and the generalist. That young man has a lot of money, i dont know where he gets the money from, but it is propelling to that position. E got elected he never lived there, how he got in, i do not know. There is a financial factor. Sometimes we dont have many women with that kind of money. Men and women also do not have that money. This time around there was a lot of good will. There were a number of people elected, one of them was a cook and a security guy. Election really to kenya to a note to another level. He gives promise that in the coming year, people will be judged not by how much money they have, or whether they are male, female, or youth. I think there is progress being made. There is hope. Are we wrapping up. I was going to start to wrap up. Vincent i just wanted to say this. Most of you know that the u. S. Government funded organization, but i wanted to make this disclaimer here that our remarks do not reflect viewers of the u. S. Government. Americapurely fourth of. We will take note. [laughter] been a very,as very interesting discussion today. This is probably the first of what may be a number of inevitably,because this attention will turn out so much to the election itself and the results, but what does this mean in the longer term for kenya . I want to think our two guests hamza. Incent and this is not the first time i have been on the panel. Thank you very much. Ambassador, thank you for joining us. Think all of you for coming up this afternoon to be part of this discussion. Banks. [applause] thanks. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] coming up, a discussion about cities and globalization. For heatherrial heyer while protesting a white supremacist march. Our interview with a former helpsnationalists who now people leave hate groups. Forum on global cities, looking at the role of cities in globalization. Tory, a include john former mayor of rio de janeiro. Onted by the Chicago Council Global Affairs and the financial times