US 'hopeful' on Kenya polls
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson. He said Kenya has made considerable progress in addressing the causes of the violence that followed the 2007 elections March 15, 2012. FILE
Kenya has made considerable progress in addressing the causes of the violence that followed the 2007 elections, the United States' top diplomat for Africa said in an interview Thursday.
“We're watching and we're hopeful about elections that will either occur in December of this year or in March of 2013,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson, a former US ambassador to Kenya.
Ambassador Carson enumerated several “good things” that have occurred in Kenya in recent years.
He cited the adoption of a new constitution, “the creation of a more presidential system,” devolution of authority to new districts, and “the reshaping of the entire judiciary with the appointment of a new and highly respected lawyer as chief justice of the Supreme Court and a new attorney-general.”
Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan “has done a remarkable job over the last three years of encouraging a process of political reform as well as political reconciliation,” Ambassador Carson added in the interview with allafrica.com.
Calling Kenya “an important country” with which the US “has enjoyed its strongest relationship since the 1960s,” Ambassador Carson declared “we'd like to see it do much better than the 2007 elections.”
