in the British House of Commons

on Thursday last week, Hugh Bayley (Labour), Chair of the Africa All-Party Parliamentary Group, said:

What Kenya needs is not a fix between leaders. What Kenya needs is the rule of law and democracy. I believe firmly that it needs fresh elections-at least, fresh presidential elections-this year. We know that such elections cannot happen immediately, because so many people have been driven from their homes and would be unable to vote. A period of calm is needed to enable people to return home, but the elections need to take place this year, not in two, three, four or five years' time.

What can our Government do? First, we should advocate good policies, but recognise our limitations. We can advocate such policies, but we cannot enforce them. Secondly, we should press for and provide technical assistance for a forensic investigation of the ballot, if such an investigation is possible. In that way, we and the world would know whether the election was stolen and what went wrong, so that lessons could be learned for the future. That was proposed at yesterday's meeting in Parliament by Gladwell Otieno, who is an extremely well respected Kenyan anti-corruption and human rights campaigner and founder of Transparency International-Kenya. She flew in yesterday to speak to our group on behalf of a coalition of voluntary bodies, Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice.

Our Government should continue to refrain from recognising the election as free and fair, and from recognising Mr. Kibaki's election as President. We should discuss with other African countries whether Kenya, in the present circumstances, should be suspended from the Commonwealth.

We should work to strengthen the democratic institutions in Kenya, especially the electoral commission. The present commission must stand down-it is wholly discredited. The chairman of the commission who announced that Mr. Kibaki had been elected President said later that he did so under duress; the commission cannot be allowed to remain as it is.