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Free, fair and credible? An assessment of Kenya 2017 Election

Periodic, free, fair, and credible elections are one of the undisputed principles of liberal democracy. Kenya embraced multiparty democracy at independence in 1963 and has since used periodic elections as a means of selecting leaders to office. Focusing on Kenya’s national election held on 8 August 2017, this paper evaluates the fundamental requirements for a free, fair, and credible election. To this end, the paper assesses Kenya’s electoral legal framework and its application during the 2017 national elections. In addition, the paper uses primary data by Afrobarometer to explore public opinion on the performance of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), political parties, and the media towards free, fair, and credible elections. This study finds that despite some institutional challenges, Kenya’s 2017 national elections were conducted under a comprehensive electoral legal framework and met the threshold of free, fair, and credible as affirmed by the citizenry through Afrobarometer’s public opinion survey. The positive assessment of universally accepted electoral practice indicators by most of the people affirms that, notable challenges notwithstanding, Kenya’s 2017 national elections were free, fair, and credible, thus endorsing the legitimacy and authority of elected leaders. This argument is cognisant of the election outcome as a fundamental factor in shaping public perception of freeness and fairness in the electoral process.