Kevin Kelley
3 February 2008
New York — Washington's failure to condemn the rigging of Nigeria's election a year ago left the impression in Nairobi that vote fraud would be tolerated, a leading human rights group charged on Friday.
"Nigeria's leader came to power in a violent and fraudulent vote, yet he's been accepted on the international stage," Kenneth Roth, director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "It's no wonder Kenya's president felt able to rig his re-election."
In an interview with the Sunday Nation, another Human Rights Watch official subsequently modified Mr Roth's accusation. Nigeria's negative example could also have emboldened the Orange Democratic Movement to engage in vote fraud of its own, said Chris Albin-Lackey, a senior researcher in the group's Africa division.
In response to Nigeria's February 2007 election, which was won by the ruling party amidst widespread charges of poll rigging, the United States did not even threaten to withhold aid nor did it push the government to negotiate with the opposition, Human Rights Watch points out.
In Kenya's case, the group adds, the US has expressed concern about irregularities in the December 27 vote count and has repeatedly called for negotiations between President Mwai Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Expectations for Kenya were higher than for Nigeria, Mr Albin-Lackey added. He said Kenya had been in the forefront of the trend in Africa away from autocratic rule and toward open democracy. The mishandling of the vote count, along with the ensuing violence, has caused a reconsideration of Kenya's status, Mr Albin-Lackey said.
In its annual global survey published on Thursday, Human Rights Watch offered a somewhat positive appraisal of developments in Kenya prior to the election. The group noted, for example, that "the run-up to the December 2007 elections was far less violent than that of past elections."
A section of the Kenya report written prior to the outburst of violence observed that the country's multiparty political system "has developed considerably since the retirement of President Daniel Arap Moi in 2002. The new pluralism, though flawed and very fractious, has helped stabilise the country, along with economic growth, a less divisive executive style and increasingly independent media and legislature."
But Human Rights Watch also found that "action to address Kenya's longstanding problems with corruption continue to be desultory."
The group again holds powerful outside interests partly responsible.
"Foreign donors, originally optimistic that President Kibaki would crack down more vigorously on corruption, have lowered their expectations and generally remained silent about Kenya's human rights performance," the group's report states. "For the US," it adds, "Kenya is a frontline state in counter-terrorism efforts, and since 2001 US military aid to Kenya has increased eight-fold, most of it for weapons and training."
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