Welcome to our kenyan election review. We did a kenyan election preview. I am not sure many of our forecasts or predictions came to pass which is maybe a good thing. I will introduce, very happy that we have a panel this morning consisting of two distinguished journalists who have been in kenya following the campaign in kenya and i will introduce them in just a moment. My name is mark bellamy, Senior Advisor for africa at csi us, ambassador in nairobi, i had the good fortune to spend several weeks in nairobi prior to this year at the election. I want to start with a few opening remarks to frame this mornings discussion and turn to our guests. As all of you in this room know, last week 15 million canyons went to the polls to elect a president , to elect members of parliament, to elect governors to 49 counties and a number of other officeholders. By any standard and certainly by african standards this was a remarkable event. If only because of the thousands of Campaign Appearances by different candidates, because of the passionate participation of such a large part of the canyon electorate and the technological sophistication of this process including the speedy electronic tallying of votes on election day. As you know, incumbent president won the presidency with a margin of victory that was larger than predicted in any paul, but not outside the realm of probability. As expected, Opposition Leader has rejected the results claiming these elections were rigged. He genuinely believed he had the numbers this time to win and canyons and International Observers believed that as well. He warned he was certain the incumbent would stop at nothing to rob him yet again of an electoral victory yet unlike in 20072013 he is struggling to convince observers these elections were, in fact, seriously flawed. Angry protests have erupted in some nairobi slums and parts of western kenya that are his strongholds but so far there is little to suggest a repeat of the ethnicbased violence that followed the calamitous 2007 elections. Most of the deaths in this can be attributed to quick trigger, quick triggered Kenyan Security forces so at this point it is probably a good idea for all of us to urge restraint on all sides, restraint in terms of putting supporters in the street and the kenyan government keeping it Security Forces on a short leash. Most International Observers gave the thumbsup to these elections. The white house has issued a statement congratulating the president on his victory. In kenya, apart from the oppositions predictable rejection of the results some legitimate doubts remain. Forms signed by Election Officials and party agents at each polling station and each constituency counting center that are meant to confirm the electronic results of these elections have not been completely and publicly released. For the Election Commission to say dont worry, we have these forms in hand isnt good enough. To put the final feel of approval on this election these forms need to be posted by the elect oral commission on its website or made available for public scrutiny and without that final step, Public Confidence in the elect oral commission which was a problem throughout the campaign, this lack of confidence will indoor and suspicions about hacking and rigging will likely also indoor. I must confess that some of my predictions did not come to pass and in many ways i am relieved that they didnt. It was very easy to imagine scenarios that this election was acrimonious throughout and thought to be exceptionally close would end in disorder and possibly widespread violence. That would have been a severe setback for kenyas young democracy and for canyons eagerness to exercise and test their rights under kenyas new constitution. Those worstcase scenarios did not materialize. I may have been wrong in predicting clean, fair, credible electoral process regardless of who won would be a big boost for all of kenya and overtime would have the effect of communities closer together. I was probably too idealistic in making that assumption. The aftermath of this election, clean and fair and credible though it may prove to be seems to be trending in a different direction and not necessarily leading to greater inclusiveness and social cohesion. It may be too early to draw that conclusion but not to be concerned about the quick crackdown on civil society, a move that recalls some of the low points had followed the 2013 election. And election won by william rudell. I would like to turn to our two guests. I am delighted we have two distinguished journalists from the voice of america both of whom have covered different aspects of the Kenyan Campaign and the elect oral process. Directly to my right, victor mc cordy is managing director of the English Africa Service and tv hosts of africa 54 program. A native of kenya, victor is a versatile journalist with 20 years of experience working in africa, europe and the us. He has covered Many International stories, International Conferences and many Prominent International figures and covered this election in kenya on the grounds arriving weeks or days before the election and through the electoral process so great to have you with us today. And native tanzanian, chief of the swahili service, started his career as a journalist in tanzania, joined in 1994 and traveled widely through africa and reported from many corners of africa, he was one of the first journalists to visit darr for and report on the dark for story internationally back in 2004. The bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees from howard university. Set up and organized and ran the network of correspondents that were in place in kenya to cover this election so thank you for agreeing to join us here this afternoon. If i can i would like to turn to you first for your impressions, your comments on this election. Each of our guests will speak for a while and we will open up to your comments and questions. Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be invited to talk about this historic election in kenya. It was such an event and great to be on the grounds. There are so many things that happen, i can always say having been monitoring the developments running up to the elections it was an exciting time in kenya because stakes were so high the incumbent was running to make sure to secure a second term. There has been a lot for him and his supporters, did a good job for the last 5 years from the Opposition Leader, for many it has been concluded that this is it, his only chance to make it and if he doesnt, i predicted he will be taking his retirement from politics. We dont know if they will confirm that so it was interesting to observe the campaigns and try to listen to what they are saying, why they wanted to be elected and ten days before the actual closing day, there was so much frenzy of activity, the campaigns were all over the country crisscrossing each other, trying to get the last vote particularly from areas where they believe many voters didnt do so well last time. Almost impossible to catch up with them. Another region of the country, it was interesting, the night i was traveling didnt realize a very important key person in the elect oral commission had disappeared and i woke to that news as i was settling in and fighting jet lag. The manager of the independent election have gone missing and been discovered murdered. The timing couldnt have been worse. A few days until the election ends all the speculation especially of the confidence one could have, accusations by the opposition coalition, schemes to infiltrate the elect oral commission and manipulate the process so we woke up to the shock of the death of that man, and everyone was wondering if this was directly linked to the elections that were a few days away and that change the narrative, the security of the Electronic Systems to transmit the election results. So as we continue to try to understand what was happening, we continued nevertheless to observe the last few days of the campaigns which were a frenzy of activity and tried to listen closely to see if we could see the major platforms for these two different campaigns especially with big cognitions, independent candidates didnt feature much even on the campaign trail. And after election, most of the time in nairobi. Listening to the two campaigns, did they understand other than attacking each other. They took question on the trail for what has been done in the area of Infrastructure Development even before the Current Administration with implementation of those projects, and to nairobi, and later on networks of highways which some were completed and still under construction and we will definitely complete the job, taking care of what they have done. On the other side the opposition trying to convince the voters they can do something because they have nothing to show what they will do, to make any reference, you can see the challenge of trying to convince the voters they have a better plan but on the whole you consider as a journalist looking for real concrete plans with a strategy on development or otherwise you didnt see much. They traded insults, dancing on the campaign trail of entertainment and later on the day came was very well organized and orchestrated, a fantastic job in the election, a few missing things but overall election day was a success, there were few complaints, nairobi city, but because the commission, everyone will vote those things, 8 00 pm after the polls closed at 5 00. Interesting, eventually streaming in, streamed live on the Electoral Commission and didnt take long between the incumbent and Opposition Leader and after that the Opposition Leader set off all this, debates for sure of the transmission and whether credible numbers on the screen, we will talk more about that. And the process before, during and after the election. Thank you. Thank you for sharing the podium with you. I will show how we as the Africa Division prepare for this, this is a very important election, very unique in terms of accomplishing credible election and also demonstrating a lot of people were interested in. A division, we go to nairobi, and 25 stringers and not all were from kenya and journalists in uganda and tanzania and canyons to do some training on election coverage, digging into the issue of objectivity, there was a lot of concern about violence and the media not to hype this concern but also you have to say there is an elephant in the room. We did this training on all platforms, radio, tv for five days in nairobi and did a lot of social media training, social media was very important in this election, we wanted to address that before the elections. During the elections, we had people from here who went there also and nairobi, talking about the election itself, we capture the mood and what is going on. The people of kenya had in this election, people came out in big numbers and they were there from midnight, shivering in the cold of nairobi, waiting to vote. And four hours, coming in and got in line, not until 10 00 a. M. There was a lot of confidence, in terms of showing up and going on, when the results came i would say personally, observing the results and having followed up the period before the elections, they were showing the elections they were neck and neck, study coming out, a few hours after that, he jumped to a 1 million lead and never relinquished it. I was astonished with the speed of how he jumped so far ahead so fast but i wasnt surprised that he won. I was very surprised so today there is breaking news, promised this big announcement, the nation was waiting for this announcement, saying the victory is computergenerated and figures were cooked and there were other sessions. The nation breathed a sigh of relief when the announcement was made. A lot of people think it is not the most civilized way to go to this kind of argument. It is upon the judiciary to be a democratic institution. But let me share, today, one of our online journalists brought a story which shows kenya voted along geographic and ethnic lines which is no surprise. All 12 counties from predominant ethnic groups and six counts where the main group. If you follow politics, ethnic is very strong. In northeastern provinces in nairobi provinces. Where he comes from and in the other province, a stronghold, only on the eastern province, that is where five counties winning. More numbers coming out. A window into and the ability on the record and took credit for some achievement some of them started, and nasa, mostly on promises. Nasa was put together just a few months ago in april, so were in nairobi. They are scrambling, now we put as our candidates, and putting the platform together, the jubilee, a tough job, these candidates travel across, not they stop in modes and got a feeling of how it feels to travel across the country. I will stop there. And i would like to say a Little Something on that side. Talk to me, come on. In nairobi, go a few days before we got there a week before the election, in terms of preparations to the last political rallies, on the party side, have watched or looked at most of the elections, most of them. All the president s from the later president , the father of the current president , i was i voted during president keybacky, and in jubilees of time but then i was here. I have seen it all and what they would say from the journalists perspective point of view my assessment of how the election went, the process of preparing and voting and having gone to the way the current president s ballot on the eighth of this month, this was probably the best election in terms of preparation up to that point. Were going to know that, i was speaking earlier, telling him what mr. Raila odinga has done was right thing because even for us we are not pretty to the exact workings of what was happening behind the scenes when we were counting the votes. It was an opportunity for us to see through the judicial system do know, things happen or whether the did not happen and they are just crying for no good reason. So basically, yes, i think an issue, specific issue we may need to talk about. Ill be more than happy to share. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Actually thats a good point. I just want to underline that i think most observers come certain most observers ive talked to would agree that this was an exceptionally wellrun election. And particularly when contrasted with previous attempts we had some pretty severe technical breakdowns which then have led to an absence of all the confidence in the process. That was not an issue at this time. Technical breakdowns were not an issue, and that said, im not sure that technology is also the answer, technology doesnt guarantee of free and Fair Election. But this was a big improvement for kenya. Before we go to questions into the larger audience, id like to ask vincent and dr. Hamza a question or two about the media and the medias coverage of the election in kenya. You had teams all over the country, and can you share with us a little bit, can you tell us did those reporters that you had out in the field, or the able, did they have free access . Was able to get to the polling stations . Was able to talk to officials and talk to voters . And were voters wante willing tk to journalists and willing to share their experiences with the journalists . And secondly, you working alongside kenyan media and International Journals would come in for this event, and maybe you can share with us some of your impressions about how did the media cover this . Did the media do the right job in terms of truly telling the story of this election . Well, if i may answer some of those. If we had accreditation, we didnt have a problem accessing any place. We were able to go to any of the important areas we wanted to visit. It was polling day, well go to polling stations, nobody stopped us. For the tallying of the results with access to the Election Commissions tallying center and so there was no restriction. I dont think there was any problem speaking with either the participant in the campaign, the politicians. The challenge was they were moving around too much, especially the president ial candidates, pinning them down for a sitdown interview was a big challenge. Their priority was elsewhere. They wanted to appeal to the voters, not too much interested in talking to some of us. So that was a big challenge, but as regards how the other media houses covered, i observed them keenly but closely the local media, one of the things come at a no, we tried best to do a jo, a good job, kenyan journalism really free speech, rather space come in terms of media after many years of fighting to have freedom of expression in a way i feel like looking at how the elections were covered, the time before the actual elections were covered, there was an opportunity there because there were not many really strong well researched investigative journalists that kind of high quality pieces out there. The media in a way took the easier route of having several panelists in the stooges, and do just talking, analyze what politicians had set out there. And many times use what is reported is what one side said and then their response on the other side, no Serious Investigation into how truthful are the statements, whether their claims of certain development projects, say we build 300 or 3000 house facilities. You wanted to go out and find out if billy that is true, when suddesuch claims are made againe other side, you know, how fair and truthful some of those claims by the opposition or by the government. So you felt like the media, maybe didnt have the resources but you feel like there was something missing in helping to inform the citizenry on that for 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 the economic development, job creation, the countryside development, how the monies that were allocated to the development of the local counties have been utilized, you didnt see a lot of really good serious reporting. Reason i dont understand, but persona