The European Union Election Observation Mission is to monitor elections in 39 of the country’s 47 counties.
According to Ladislav Garassy, one of the long-term observers deployed in Kirinyaga County, a team of 10 experts specializing in various disciplines has been in the country since June.
Garassy and his co-observer Nicola Susse were speaking in the Kirinyaga County IEBC office after meeting with election agency officials to assess their readiness.
“It is one of the main teams sitting in Nairobi. It is made up of experts drawn from security, electoral agencies and the media. Its main mandate is to coordinate the whole exercise as well as receive the reports from his agents working in the field,” he said.
He said they would be involved in assessing the three phases of the electoral process – pre-election, election and post-election.
“We arrived in the region two days ago and so far we have visited various locations with the aim of familiarizing ourselves with the key players in this election as it relates to this region,” Garassy said.
“We will meet with different stakeholders like clergy, minority groups, candidates and representatives of political parties to hear their views and concerns regarding the elections,” he said.
Garassy said they were not in the area to give suggestions on what needs to be done, but to note and raise concerns about whether the electoral process complied with Kenyan law and international electoral standards.
The observer said that in a few days another team of observers would travel to the country and later join them in their task of monitoring the elections in various polling centers.
County IEBC Director Jane Gitonga said they will continue to have mutual engagements with observers who are key players in the election.
Apart from the EU, she added that the African Union, ECOWAS and SADC would also be involved in election monitoring.
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