Kenya

Through its groundbreaking Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign, The Carter Center partners with city leaders worldwide to raise awareness about women’s right to access information and to help cities reach women with valuable information and essential municipal services. 

Access to this information empowers women with a stronger voice, enabling them to participate in public life, utilize public services, and make more informed decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities. In Kenya, the project has partnered with the cities of Nairobi, and Kisumu County.

How It Started

At the invitation of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya, The Carter Center deployed a small expert mission to Nairobi, focused primarily on assessing the role of technology in the Aug. 9 presidential election.

Our Work and Methods

• A preelection assessment team was deployed to Kenya in June and July 2022.
• The goal of the expert mission – four analysts led by Carter Center advisor Ben Graham Jones – was to assess the role and functionality of technology throughout the electoral process, including:
  • Biometric voter registration
  • Voter verification
  • Candidate registration
  • Personnel recruitment
  • Election observer registration
  • Voter education provider registration
  • Results transmission
  • The appeals process
• The mission spoke with more than 200 interlocutors in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kisumu, Nyeri, and elsewhere, in collaboration with Privacy International, a nonprofit organization that defends the right to privacy across the world, to incorporate an analysis of issues around data protection.
• After the Aug. 9 vote, the Center monitored post electoral processes and legal challenges, with a special focus on the role of election technology.

Impacts

• The mission found that technology played an important role at every stage of the election process, but greater preparedness around communications would have bolstered public confidence in the technologies used.
• To consolidate the gains and continue making progress, the mission made suggestions for additional steps well in advance of the 2027 elections, including the introduction of digital signatures and risk-limiting audits to improve the verifiability of results transmission and verification.
• Key findings of the mission were incorporated into the Carter Center’s handbook Safeguarding Election Technologies, which serves as a resource to facilitate effective scrutiny of technology in democratic processes across the globe.

How It Started

The political environment was highly polarized and divisive throughout the 2017 electoral period. Instances of violence occurred, beginning with the political party primaries.

• Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission invited The Carter Center to send an international observation team.

Our Work and Methods

• The Center’s observation mission for the Aug. 8 election included more than 100 people from 34 countries, led by John Kerry, former U.S. secretary of state, and Dr. Aminata Touré, former prime minister of Senegal.
• When the August 2017 vote was thrown out by the Supreme Court for numerous irregularities, a fresh election was scheduled for Oct. 26. The Center extended its presence with a limited mission of 10 long-term observers and a core team of experts.

Impacts

• On Aug. 8, 2017, the people of Kenya showed remarkable resolve, waiting in line for hours to vote. The Carter Center reported that while voting and counting processes had functioned smoothly, there were problems in the tallying and transmission of results. Calling for calm, the Center urged those with disputes to take their cases to court.
  • Second-place finisher Raila Odinga challenged the results, claiming fraud, and Kenya’s Supreme Court nullified the election. The Carter Center was invited to observe the fresh election on Oct. 26.
  • Only 38% of registered voters turned out, and incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta won with 98% of the vote. The Carter Center said the fresh presidential election was not fully competitive and was marked by insecurity and political uncertainty. It called for national dialogue and a reconciliation process to heal political and tribal rifts that were made worse by the 2017 elections.

How It Started

The 2013 elections represented a unique occasion for Kenya to begin a new chapter, following ethnic-fueled postelection violence in 2007-2008 that left more than 1,000 people dead and more than 600,000 displaced. The 2013 elections were the first to be conducted under the 2010 constitution.

• The newly created Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission invited The Carter Center to provide an impartial assessment of the voting process.

Our Work and Methods

• The Center deployed 14 long-term observers to assess preelection preparations, as well as legal and political developments.
• Closer to election day, the Center deployed an additional 38 short-term observers from 19 countries to observe voting and counting.

Impacts

• The Carter Center delegation found that despite serious shortcomings in the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s management of technology and tabulation of final election results, results from the presidential and parliamentary elections reflected the will of voters.

This project ended in 2013.

How It Started

In 2002, Mwai Kibaki was elected to succeed longtime President Daniel arap Moi, who was forbidden by the national constitution from running again. It was a milestone election, breaking a 34-year political hold by the ruling party of Kenya.

Our Work and Methods

• On election day 2002, Carter Center observers visited more than 200 polling stations in Nairobi and six provinces.

Impacts

• Although there were incidents of violence and political intimidation during the 2002 campaign season, the election was open and calm. The Center praised Kenyan citizens for their peaceful participation and the Electoral Commission of Kenya for their determination during a new process.

This project ended in 2002.

Current Status: Transmission stopped, 1994
Certification of Dracunculiasis Elimination: 2018

How It Started

Since 1986, The Carter Center has led the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease, an ancient waterborne parasitic infection. In 1993, the Center began supporting Kenya’s Ministry of Health to find and contain all the country’s cases of Guinea worm disease and prevent new ones.

Our Work and Methods

• From 1993 to 1994, the project conducted village-by-village searches for cases of Guinea worm disease in districts adjacent to its borders with Uganda and Sudan, areas thought to be at greatest risk for having endemic disease. A total of 53 cases of Guinea worm disease, most of them imported from Sudan, were found in the Turkana and West Pokot districts of Kenya.
• A reliable disease-reporting system was developed by the Ministry of Health with assistance from the World Health Organization.

Impacts

• In 1995, Kenya reported only 23 cases of Guinea worm disease, all imported from Sudan, then the most endemic Guinea worm country in the world. With the West Pokot district reporting no indigenous cases in 1994, Kenya became one of the first countries in the world to stop transmission of Guinea worm disease since the campaign began in 1986.
• In 2000, Kenya was honored at a special ceremony at The Carter Center in Atlanta for having stopped Guinea worm disease transmission. After submitting the necessary documentation and hosting an inspection visit, Kenya in 2018 finally received WHO certification that it had eliminated Guinea worm.