In the past elections in Kenya have raised political temperatures which give an unsecure working environment marred by violence. This has escalated which has been fronted from ethnic lines by the political elite. The last three general elections have recorded violence and destruction of property as a result of political differences being used to push ethnic political agendas. The 2007 election is the most memorable as there was two months of bloodshed where over 1,000 people died and up to 500,000 internally displaced persons in a country viewed as a bastion of economic and political stability in a volatile region.

As the country gears towards the August 2022 General Election, the human rights community is keen to play a critical role in ensuring the elections credible, free and peaceful and that the outcome represent the aspiration of people living in a democratic state. The traditional contribution of Human Rights Defenders in such a process is to ensure that citizens are sufficiently sensitized to play their civic duty to elect their leaders, monitor the election process ensure it meets international standards and document malpractices and human rights violations to facilitate timely intervention and hold violators to account. This role is more critical in Kenya where elections are hotly contested, often violently resulting in massive human rights violations. During such periods, Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) who empower citizens to elect leaders that drive their aspirations become target for threats, personal injury, loss or damage of their equipment or their work is inhibited by restrictive laws, policies and practices. Despite the risks, HRDs remain committed to advance human rights, respect for laws and citizen rights freely choose their leaders without inhibition.

Conscious of the critical role of HRDs in the election process and risks that they face when they work to promote and protect human rights, the Defenders Coalition and in partrnership with the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Nairobi has established a support project for human rights defenders that will monitor human rights situation and situation of HRDs during the 2022 Elections. The role of the Defenders Coalition in the context of elections would be to document human rights violations, including by identifying local and national trends and patterns of violations and abuses to HRDs, and taking preventive or corrective measures on specific human rights issues through advocacy partnerships during the electoral process.

Defenders Coalition plans to deploy human rights monitors in different parts of the country, especially in areas where there has been a history of violence to document human rights violations and violations of rights HRDs violations but also offer monitors critical skills to manage their personal and information safety as well as skills in quality monitoring and documentation of violation.

Defenders’ coalition seeks to conduct one training for Human rights defenders from all the 47 counties to equip them with skills on monitoring, documenting and reporting. The trained HRD monitors will then conduct monitoring which will commence immediately after the training so as to map out potential hotspots and areas which will need attention the coming year during the general elections. The project will initially target 65 monitors, men and women HRDs drawn from all parts of the country for skills building in monitoring, documentation and reporting.