IGAD deploys observers ahead of Tuesday polls

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has deployed an election observer mission to oversee the Kenya’s polls set for tomorrow (August 8).

While addressing the press at a city hotel, the mission’s Director of Peace and Security, Amb. Tewolde Gebremeskel, said that the authority will deploy an observer mission comprising of participants from the IGAD secretariat from the different member states.

“IGAD has deployed an observer mission to monitor the Kenyan elections, the mission led by Ambassador Tewolde Gebremeskel arrived in Nairobi on August 3, 2017 and the main objective of the mission is to assist the Republic of Kenya to conduct free and fair elections by providing positive and constructive feedback that will help in the development of a democratic election culture,” Gebremeskel said.

Gebremeskel says that the observers have since met with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson, Wafula Chebukati, and Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary, Monica Juma, and attended a meeting organized by the electoral agency where the commission announced its election preparedness to the public.

He said that the mission has held a meeting with security chiefs and has been briefed about the overall security and political situation in the country and noted that his team will engage other observers throughout its presence in Kenya.

Mr. Gebremeskel says that the mission will closely observe the poll process from the opening, closing, counting and tallying stages of the election.

IGAD is a regional economic block comprising of member states Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, and South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda its main work is to harmonize policy of member state in common interest areas including peace, security, economic integration, agriculture, environment and social development.