To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the £600,000 spending allocated to the monitoring of the recent election in Kenya.

holding answer 22 January 2008

DFID contributed £600,000 to a pooled fund to support the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Elections Assistance programme. The total budget was $12 million. Many other donors supported this programme, including the USA who led the donor group.

DFID's judgment is that some of the assistance, such as support to the media centre and to domestic observers, has enabled greater transparency around the flawed tallying processes than might otherwise have been the case. The voting process itself was also supported by voter education; work with the media, hate-speech monitoring and flexible technical assistance. However, subsequent irregularities have highlighted institutional weaknesses that were tested by such a close contest.

With international partners we will look at lessons that have emerged, in particular how we can further strengthen the institutions that can underpin stable democracy in Kenya.