UPDATE - HRW warns of violence ahead of Kenyan elections

ADDS REMARKS BY EU ELECTION OBSERVERS, EXPLANATION OF NAIVASHA VIOLENCE, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) is warning of violence ahead of next month’s general elections in Kenya.

In a report released on Monday, the U.S.-based rights group says it interviewed opposition and ruling party supporters, human rights activists, and government officials.

The report has accounts of victims of the 2007 post-election violence in the country that claimed 1,000 lives and left 650,000 displaced.

Many Kenyans are afraid of stepping out to vote for fear that authorities have not done enough to ensure a peaceful election process, the report says.

The report quotes a 34-year-old mother of two saying: “Police rarely respond effectively when people report these threats and this undermines confidence of the people in them.”

Otsieno Namwaya, Africa researcher for the group, called on the Kenyan government to ensure that all citizens are able to take part in free and fair elections without fear of violence.

“Authorities should do more to prevent a repeat of the 2007 bloodshed in Naivasha,” he added, referring to a town in Kenya’s Rift Valley where hundreds died in violence around the December 2007 elections, partially fueled by ethnic rivalries.

Politics in the east African country have historically been ethnically driven, with many people voting with their tribes.

Kenya is set to go to the polls on Aug. 8, when its citizens will vote for a new government.

-EU poll watcher: Violence not inevitable

A European Union delegation sent to Kenya on a mission to observe next month’s polls warned on Monday of possible election violence.

"It is no secret that there are concerns about a possible outbreak of violence,” Marietje Schaake, chief observer of the European Union Election Observance Mission (EOM), told reporters in the capital Nairobi.

“This is not inevitable, and it is clear that it would create a situation where everybody loses. The fact that the EU has sought to deploy such a large mission is a testimony to the significance of the Aug. 8 elections."

The EU has deployed 30 long-term and 32-short term observers to Kenya from such EU member states as Norway and Switzerland.