Joint Press Release by Heads of Mission in Kenya on International Support for Kenya’s 2017 Elections:
As long-time partners, our countries support the Kenyan government and people as they seek to realize the goals of the 2010 Constitution and Kenya's Vision 2030. We are committed to helping Kenya to hold free, fair, credible, and peaceful elections in 2017, and to provide non-partisan technical assistance to government institutions and civil society. We do this because effective democracies depend not just on government institutions, but on non-governmental institutions as well. A free media and independent civil society both have critical roles to play in democracies.
To be clear, we do not provide electoral assistance to any organization, governmental or non-governmental, to influence the election results for any side, political party, or candidate. Rather, our assistance supports the Kenyan people to independently exercise their right to vote and have their voice heard. The Kenyan people alone have the sovereign right to choose their leaders, and we fully respect this right.
We operate with full transparency. Our solicitations for project proposals are, and always have been, publicly available. In accordance with our bilateral agreements, we have created our electoral assistance programs in consultation with government, political party, and civil society leaders, who identified weaknesses in the 2013 electoral process that would benefit from international support. We provide our electoral assistance to support the Kenyan people in making their choices freely in an environment of transparency and peace.
As close friends of Kenya, our electoral assistance is just one small part of a very much larger partnership in which we work together every day on education, health, security, the environment, and economic development.
This Press Release has been issued by the following Heads of Mission in Kenya: Robert F. Godec, Ambassador of the United States; Mette Knudsen, Ambassador of Denmark; Stefano Dejak, Ambassador, European Union Delegation to Kenya; Frans Makken, Ambassador of the Netherlands; Tarja Fernández, Ambassador of Finland; John Murton, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., for the United Kingdom; Victor Conrad Rønneberg, Ambassador of Norway; Johan Borgstam, Ambassador of Sweden; John Feakes, High Commissioner for Australia; Jutta Frasch, Ambassador of Germany; Sara Hradecky, High Commissioner of Canada.
Distributed by APO on behalf of EU Delegation to Kenya.
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
