The Carter Centre has released its final report on the 2017 general and presidential elections, which blames the tension that engulfed the polls on political confrontation. The centre deployed a core team of experts and long-term observers in Kenya in April 2017 to monitor key parts of the electoral process, including voter registration, campaigning, electoral preparations, and the resolution of disputes in the courts. 

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former Senegalese Prime Minister Aminata Touré led a short-term election observation mission for the August 8 elections that included more than 100 observers from 34 countries. According to the report, the electoral process was marred by incidents of unrest and violence throughout the extended electoral period. Harsh attacks by top political leaders on electoral and judicial authorities had seriously undermined the independence of the country’s democratic institutions and the rule of law. Confrontational tactics by political leaders polarised the country and exposed the deep tribal and ethnic rifts that have long characterized its politics. The Carter Centre observers found that pre-election period included a reasonably adequate but flawed voter registration process, which included an independent audit and corrective actions to address some of the many errors in the list. The observers found that the voting and counting processes during the August 8 election were generally well-admini