Democratic rights are increasingly not respected in Kenya, a report by the US-based Freedom House has found.
The report released on Wednesday showed that democracy has faced its most serious crisis in decades in 2017.
It says the basic tenets - including guarantees of free and fair elections, the rights of minorities, freedom of the press, and the rule of law - came under attack around the world.
The report comes months after Kenya held its general elections that was disputed by the Opposition who said democracy is at stake.
The Supreme Court initially won broad praise for annulling the results of what it deemed to be a flawed presidential election.
But later on, it was criticised after the Opposition withdrew from the polls saying the outcome was predetermined.
The period before the court-mandated rerun was marred by a lack of substantive reforms, incidents of political violence, and a boycott by the main opposition candidate.
"A deeply flawed electoral process in Kenya contributed to political violence there.
Leaders in several other countries clung to power, often at the expense of their citizens’ basic rights," the report reads in part.
With a population of over 45 million people, Kenya got freedom score of 48 out of 100 points, a drop from 51 points in the previous year's report.
This is rated as being partly free by the report.
According to the report, 71
countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 registering gains.
This marked the 12th consecutive year of decline in global freedom.
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Last year, an opinion survey showed that nearly half of Kenyans believe the country is not very democratic.
The survey conducted by Twaweza East Africa indicated only one in every eight Kenyans (12 per cent) thinks democracy is being practised to a large extent.
Four in every 10 (40 per cent) believe it’s only being practised to a small extent.
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Zimbabwe
The process in which elected president Robert Mugabe was compelled to resign in November under pressure from the military pushed Zimbabwe over the threshold from Partly Free to Not Free in Freedom in the World 2018.
According to the report, the regime’s years of repression of the opposition and disregard for the rule of law, that placed Zimbabwe at the tipping point between Not Free and Partly Free prior to 2017.
Zimbabwe was given 30 out of 100 points.
Robert
Mugabe
resigned as Zimbabwe's president on Tuesday, shortly after parliament began an impeachment process to end his nearly four decades of rule.
The 93-year old clung on for a week after an army takeover and expulsion from his own ruling ZANU-PF party, which also told him to leave power.
Wild celebrations broke out at a joint sitting of parliament when Speaker Jacob Mudenda announced
Mugabe's resignation and suspended the impeachment procedure.
Burundi, Somalia and South Sudan also qualify as "not free" on the Freedom House table.
South Sudan is given the second-lowest score of two points and
Somalia with a score of seven points. Burundi was given 19 points.
'Method'
The 2018 edition involved more than 100 analysts and more than 30 advisers.
The analysts prepare the draft reports and scores, use a broad range of sources, including news articles, academic analyses, reports from NGOs, individual professional contacts, and on-the-ground research.
The analysts score countries and territories based on the conditions and events within their borders during the coverage period.
Freedom in the World
uses a three-tiered system consisting of
scores,
ratings, and
status.
The complete list of the questions used in the scoring process, and the tables for converting scores to ratings and ratings to status, appear at the end of this essay.