Inquiry Urges Kenya to Reform Electoral Laws

An independent inquiry into Kenya’s discredited 2007 presidential elections has recommended an overhaul of the country’s electoral laws. Speaking while releasing the inquiry commission’s report to the public in Nairobi, inquiry chairman Johann Kriegler called for the disbandment of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) and advised that future elections be run by a professional secretariat under a new electoral body. The inquiry also said it was impossible to know who, between President Mwai Kibaki and Opposition leader (now Prime Minister) Raila Odinga, really won the controversial 2007 poll. Kibaki and Odinga formed a coalition government to stop violent skirmishes that erupted after Odinga accused Kibaki of rigging the elections.[PE]