US Democratic Party to Monitor Kenya Elections

The vice-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus is set to arrive in Kenya this week to co-lead an election monitoring delegation from the United States' Democratic Party.

Congresswoman Karen Bass, who represents a section of Los Angeles, will lead five US Congress employees as part of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) election monitoring team.

The 63 year-old Bass is the top Democratic member of the Africa subcommittee of the US House of Representatives.

Bass will co-lead the NDI's international delegation together with Aisha Laraba Abdullahi, a former commissioner of political affairs for the Africa Union; Prof Attahiru Jega, former chair of Nigeria's Independent National Election Commission; Yvonne Mokgoro, a former justice of South Africa's Constitutional Court; and Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican former governor of the US state of New Jersey.

NDI spokesman Jerry Hartz said that the 30-member delegation will work hand in hand with the 7,000 monitors being deployed by Kenya's Election Observation Group.

He further said that the NDI team will coordinate its operation with those of the Carter Centre, a US-based election observation group, which has 80 observers in Kenya under the leadership of former Secretary of State John Kerry.