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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN AFRICA
FACULTY OF LAW
DEPARTMENT OF LAW
A RESEARCH CONCEPT PAPER
AN EXPOSITIONON ON ELECTIONS MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION LAWS IN KENYA.
FAITH WANJA KIRAGU
REG NO 1028563
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of the study
Over the last decade, electoral democracy in Africa has been subjected to its most severe test. Although majority of the fifty four countries in the continent reverted back to multi-party democracy in the early 1990s, and have, over the intervening period held periodic elections, most of these elections did not meet the democratic test of credible, free, fair and peaceful.
Examples from Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Uganda, vindicate the foregoing claim. On a positive note, however, few countries, among them Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Senegal held elections that were in compliance with the legal and constitutional framework and met the credibility test as was affirmed by both local and international observers.
Comparatively across the continent, weak constitutional, legal and institutional framework was manifestly evident throughout the electoral cycle which also lacked clear mechanism for resolving the electoral disputes.
As was witnessed in Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast, the electoral process was accompanied by unprecedented violence that led a number of scholars to conclude that electoral violence had become a new manifestation of conflict in post-cold war Africa. Fundamentally, a major feature across the failed election was weak election management and administration, with Elections Management Bodies (EMBs)
1.2 Statement of the ProblemThe challenges of designing an effective electoral management system are related to the recurring theme of governance and public administration. Perhaps more so because of the legitimacy issues which inevitably attend to the establishment of a popular government in liberal democracies. Over the last decade, electoral management has emerged as an important aspect of democracy building and consolidation. To cut the inherent agency problems in governance, insulate electoral process from the reach of an interested incumbent, guarantee expression of the will of the people, facilitate fair political competition and the fussy relations between electoral administration and politics present the imminent problems of designing an administrative model for election management. Like in many parts of the continent, the consolidation of electoral democracy in Kenya still poses numerous challenges ranging from the legal and institutional framework for elections, to the resolution of electoral disputes. The promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, heightened expectation and optimism that the challenges that had characterized the electoral process in the past would be remedied. Paradoxically, the challenges of managing election persisted despite the new constitutional, legal and institutional framework. The foregoing poses a number of interrelated questions.
1.3 Research Objectives
The overall and specific objectives of this study are as follows:
1.3.1 Overall Objective
The overall objective of this study is to examine reforming elections management and administration laws in Kenya.
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
1. To assess the gaps in the elections management and administration laws in Kenya
2. To assess the reforms necessary towards elections management and administration laws in Kenya as mentioned in objective (1) above.
COMMENTS:
Your research Topic is fine. I have no problems with it at all. However, I want to you to look up the meaning of the word EXPOSITION as used in your research topic and build on it to develop objectives for your research.
Your research has absolutely no references! This worries me a lot! Where then did you get all these ideas that you are propounding in this paper? Did you care to know that in academic writing, you have to acknowledge everything that is not your original idea? You fail to respect that and the whole piece of work will be thrown out for lack of originality [plagiarism] for which you simply score zero in the project work.
What is your justification for this research? Put it anoither way: is this research justified? If it is, why? In which case you always are obliged to give a justification for the research so as to establish why this piece of work ought to be carried out at all. You didnt provide the same.
Your introduction is shallow. The introduction to any piece of research work is the window to what you are looking to write about. It is has to be detailed, well researched and completely referenced. This isnt the case in your proposal. The bulk of the work isnt referenced. Whenever you read any articles at all, the very first thing you notice is that the introduction section has the most detailed references. You must endeavor to apply the same to your writing.
Your proposal has no Bibliography at all! The question that pops to the mind quickly then is: did you consult any articles, books, periodicals, newspaper articles and inter net sources etc as you were reading for this research? If the answer then is yes, then where are the references? Note: you can never, ever present any scholarly writing without a bibliography. It would be rejected immediately.
REQUIRED:
Do a detailed introduction to the research work complete with references and bibliography. The introduction should cover what the research is all about; clear objectives and justification for the research work [justification often gives the clear reasons as to why the research ought to be carried out at all].
Give me a detailed literature review for the research. This will help me and any other reader determine to what depth you have gone into the research: which relevant authors have you consulted in preparation for you writing? How current and relevant are you in your area of research etc.
Provide me with a very detailed bibliography of your work bibliography presupposes everything that you read in preparation for this research, see 5 above.
If you are able to, please provide me with a chapter break down of how you plan to align the various chapters.
NOTE: the starting point for any research is the Google scholar: type your topic into the search engine and see what it throws up. Begin from there then you follow up into the various articles that have are relevant for your research and down load them. This way you will discover youve got a very rich bibliography in a very short span of time.
