The East African Community (EAC) on July 12 launched its observation mission for Rwanda’s July 15-16 general election. The mission comprises 55 observers, according to information from the regional bloc. Speaking at their launch event in Kigali, EAC Secretary General Veronica Mueni Nduva, announced that “within my mandate as the Secretary General of the East African Community, I have appointed Chief Justice Emeritus David Kenani Maraga of the Republic of Kenya, to lead the East African Community Election Observation Mission to the Rwanda general election 2024.” Maraga served as the 14th Chief Justice of Kenya from 2016 to 2021. ALSO READ: Rwanda Decides: Over 260 observers accredited for July elections The EAC mission comprises EALA members, members of national parliaments and national electoral commissions from represented partner states, human rights commissions, ministers of EAC affairs, and youth ambassadors. They are from Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Nduva said the EAC prides in its cardinal and fundamental principle of enhancing good governance and the culture of democracy both at national and regional level. To adhere to this principle, she pointed out, EAC strives to enhance democratic elections in all its Partner States. “The EAC underscores that election observation helps to improve electoral processes in the Partner States, it is against this backdrop that the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community mandates us to deploy election observation mission in all our eight Partner States,” she said. ALSO READ: Nearly 600 candidates scramble for 80 seats in Parliament On why the mission matters, she said that the Community came together “because we identified ourselves as common people who are bound together for a common good. We are driven by two objectives: widening and deepening integration. For us to be here, it basically means that we are furthering the third principle for which we exist in terms of integration.” “Remember we have common market; we have customs union; for all that to thrive there has to be good governance,” she added. Maraga said that his team arrived in Rwanda on July 8. “Our mission, being neutral, we want to report whether the electoral process has complied with the law of the land, first and foremost, and to ensure that everything moves on smoothly, to show whether or not that has been complied with,” he said, adding that they will also be assessing adherence to the democratic principles of the EAC as enshrined in the EAC Treaty. The observers will be deployed across the country, and are expected to be back at the mission headquarters in Kigali on July 16, Maraga said. The field reports filed by the observers will enable the bloc’s mission to prepare a preliminary statement to be released on July 17, he said, indicating that the mission will depart from Rwanda on July 18. “So far, we have observed, generally, calm electoral, political, and security environment ahead of the polling day. For this, we wish to thank the political leadership, the people of Rwanda, and the institutions managing the electoral process in this country,” he said. “A peaceful and successful general election will not just be a victory for Rwanda, but the entire East African Community,” he observed. The National Electoral Commission (NEC) announced, on July 12, that over 1,100 election observers had been accredited. They include 334 international ones, with the remaining ones being domestic.
