Dialogue for Democracy

The Maraga Task Force submitted its report to President William Ruto in November 2023. The task force was established to identify the legal, policy, administrative, institutional, and operational challenges hindering effective service delivery by the National Police Service, Kenya Prisons Service, and the National Youth Service. This article from the Missing Voices Report 2023 provides detailed insights into the outcomes of the Maraga report.

The 2022 report was launched on Friday 24th March 2023 , held in Yala, marked the launch of the Accountability report, shedding light on the Statistics and Trends of Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances in the country. 

Domestic workers enter the sphere of private lives of others, where they perform essential care work in conditions that are mostly unregulated and hidden from public view. In the process, they tend to face inhumane treatment. The disturbing part is that this abuse is normalised and accepted by a society that sympathises with the ‘discomfort of  wealthy and middle-class people who experience ‘intruding witnesses’ in their homes.  

Many victims and survivors, together with families impacted by police brutality in Kenya, seldom get justice. Some of these survivors have lived to share horrifying stories of how they have suffered brutal beatings, unlawful arrests, and torture while in detention. Some bear the scars of careless shootings if they are lucky to escape death.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Refugee Convention (GRC) it seems more important than ever, to bring the Convention’s indispensable importance for refugee protection back to the attention of policy makers and a broader public.

Kenya’s constitutional history did not develop in a vacuum. To understand the recent limitations placed on the powers of the executive by the 2010 constitution, the case for viewing Kenyan politics in the long durée remains compelling.

The repeated postponements of elections have at times caused political tensions and uncertainty. This has undermined Somaliland’s democratization process, weakened public confidence in democracy, stalled institution building and reforms, and damaged the country's relationship with the international community.

With 1.3 million registered voters (approximately 30 per cent of the population of Somaliland) expected to cast their votes — with 246 candidates gunning for 82 parliamentary seats and 966 vying for 249 district municipality seats in the six regions — these elections will be the most competitive yet.

The upcoming 6th general elections are yet another historic chance for Ethiopia to hold free and fair elections. Through democratic competition, Ethiopia can avert conflict, strengthen its democratic institutions, and begin the transition to democracy. The elections are a matter of survival.

Are elections actually worth it? While, across the world, elections are often held up as a key marker of democratic participation and government legitimacy, many ordinary people are losing faith in them as a way of selecting their leaders.

Uganda is at a political and democratic crossroads. Despite being a nominal democracy, incumbent president Yoweri Museveni, who has been at the helm for 34 years, shows no intention of relinquishing power and increasingly relies on the military to overcome his waning popularity.

Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (hbs) Nairobi Office, in collaboration with the Rift Valley Institute, cordially invites you to the 4th Election series virtual forum on; The Role of Civil Society in Managing and Mitigating Conflict in Ethiopia.

On 28 October 2020, the Rift Valley Institute in partnership with hbs will host the third webinar in its elections series to discuss Uganda’s election and the participation of women in electoral processes in Uganda.