50 Foreign Missions To Monitor Poll

By Kezio Musoke THE Electoral Commission (EC) has invited more than 50 diplomatic missions from Europe and elsewhere to act as independent observers for the March 7 presidential elections. Commissioner Robert Kitariko said the observers were invited through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and EC was expecting a good response. Those expected include observers from the United Nations (UN) and the Secretariat of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Two groups of the monitors including the Commonwealth and the Kenyan Electoral Commission have responded to the EC call and are sending their teams early next month. The Commonwealth Secretary General, Don McKinnon early last week wrote to the EC, accepting the invitation. He said the Secretariat in Britain will send a team of two, including Dr. A. Pungong and Ms Falker who will arrive on March 1 and another monitor, Jon Sheppard, will arrive on March 4. The three monitors will be briefed with others from other countries on March 5 at Hotel Africana. The Kenya Electoral Commission chairman, S.M Kivuidu and two other election monitors, commissioner Bashir Sheikh Ali and a staff member Mani Lanajian, will also arrive in the country on March 3. An official in the office of the EC chairman said the British Department for International Development (DFID) under the department of governance will coordinate all the international observers through Mr Jeromy Armoni. Meanwhile, over 17,000 people countrywide have been trained as poll monitors for the presidential election, reports Apita-Ochen. The training was carried out at county level by NEMGROUP-U, a Christian non-governmental election monitoring group. The NEMGROUP-U National Co-ordinator, the Rev. Canon Grace Kaiso, told The New Vision yesterday that the exercise was carried out between February 22 and 25, by a staff recently trained in elections and election observation. Kaiso said 17,500 poll monitors had been trained to man the same number of polling stations approved by the Electoral Commission. Kaiso said the monitors had been trained on how to observe the election voting and counting processes. He said the monitors had been advised to be impartial, so as not to discredit NEMGROUP-U on election day. "These monitors have been trained to refrain from showing support or favouritism for any candidate or expressing any views on the election day," Kaiso said. He said apart from one training centre in Kitgum district where insecurity prevented training, the exercise was successful. Ends