The European Union Election Observation Mission is set to camp in 39 out of the 47 counties to monitor the electoral process.
The union has dispatched two out of three of its contingents undertaking various duties.
According to Ladislav Garassy, one of the long-term observers deployed in Kirinyaga county, a team of 10 experts specialising in various disciplines has been in the country since June.
“This is one of the core teams sitting in Nairobi. It is composed of experts drawn from security to electoral agencies and media fields. Its core mandate is to coordinate the entire exercise as well as receive reports from its agents working in the field,” he said.
Garassy said the others are 24 teams of long-term observers who have since been dispatched to various regions.
He said they will be involved in assessing all three phases of the electoral process–pre-election, election and post-election.
Garassy and his co-observer Nicola Susse were speaking on Saturday at Kirinyaga county IEBC's office after meeting electoral agency officials to assess the state of their preparedness.
Besides Kirinyaga, he said they will be monitoring Embu and Tharaka Nithi counties.
“We arrived in the region two days ago and so far we have been touching base in a bid to familiarise ourselves with the key players in this election as far as this region is concerned," Garassy said.
"We shall be meeting different stakeholders like the clergy, minority groups, candidates and political parties' representatives to get their views and concerns about the elections.”
Garassy said they are not in the area to give suggestions on what is to be done but to note down and raise concerns about whether the poll process is in tandem with the Kenyan law and elections international standards.
The observer said in a few days, another team of 24 short-term observers will be jetting into the country and later join them in their task of monitoring the elections in various polling centres.
County IEBC manager Jane Gitonga said they will continue to have mutual engagements with observers who are key stakeholders in the elections.
Besides the EU, she added that the African Union, ECOWAS and SADC will also be involved in the monitoring of the polls.
Gitonga said they are conducting training sessions for the clerks, presiding officers and deputy presiding officers.
