EAC dispatches 15 observation teams ahead of Kenyan general election

The election observation team flagged off to observe Kenya's elections on Tuesday (chimpreports.com)

DAR ES SALAAM, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The East African Community (EAC) has deployed 15 election observation teams to observe Tuesday's general elections in Kenya, the EAC said in a statement late Saturday.

The statement issued by the EAC headquarters in Tanzania's northern city of Arusha said the dispatch of the observation teams was flagged off by the head of the EAC election observation mission, former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Kikwete, who ruled Tanzania from 2005 to 2015, said the observers had undergone training over the past five days to enable them undertake their responsibilities as international observers and as EAC observers.

Kikwete said the 52-strong EAC observer mission drawn from the EAC member states and the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) had been deployed in 15 teams that will cover various counties in all the regions across the country.

"The main task for our observers will be to observe ongoing electoral campaigns, observe polling processes on the polling day including results management at the polling stations, and observe tallying, announcement and declaration of results," said Kikwete.

Kikwete said that the mission will prepare a preliminary report on what it had observed during the electoral process.

The EAC member states are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Uganda.

Kenya's two major political alliances, Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) headed by sitting Deputy President William Ruto, and Azimio la Umoja (Resolution for Unity) led by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga with backing from President Uhuru Kenyatta will compete for the top seat in the land during Tuesday's polls.