ECK needs a press team - Kenyan Election 2007

Saturday, December 29th, 2007 at 2:07 PM

The Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) needs a strong and experienced press officer and press team to support the ECK chairman, Samuel Kivuitu, or if the ECK have such a team already he needs to let them do their job.

What is the point in having the ECK chairman read out random figures from polling stations around the country in the middle of the night? This can be handled by a press team. Then once we have news of presidential results the ECK chairman flanked by his commissioners can read those results. I also feel that the ECK should let a spokesperson handle the press briefings as Kivuitu’s rambling at press conferences are becoming increasingly shambolic.

Early this afternoon for example, he insulted the Chinese (by saying that anyone who attempts to rig the election will probably only be able to find refuge in China as the west would never grant them asylum), he stated that returning officers who haven’t not returned results should be ready for death by mob, he told journalists off for not being religious as they were reluctant to answer his call for someone to say a prayer at another briefing a few days ago. And all this was in the 5 minutes I caught of the press conference.

To be fair we all say a lot of things that in hindsight can be embarrassing and Kivuitu who has been working flat out with his team and must be exhausted and thus less cautious than normal. This is exactly why a dedicated press team in necessary for such events that last 3 or 4 days.

Another example, the ECK officials at KICC are eager to repeat that they have no idea why results from some areas are yet to arrive (52 constituencies are still to report). They say this over and over again. That is not good enough and a experienced press officer would tell them that they need some information from the ground which can explain what is happening as the tension in Kenya is rising rapidly.

All that said Kivuitu has some random jokes and insights that come with being a mzee that are quite funny like when he told off reporters for running to their computers to do simple sums instead of using mental arithmetic, I nearly turned to look around as that is exactly what my father is always telling me!

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