OCHA Lessons Learned Review of The Kenya National Election Humanitarian Preparedness Process

Between March 2012 and April 2013, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

(OCHA), Eastern Africa, ramped up its coordination of humanitarian preparedness efforts in

Kenya. This was in response to a common risk assessment that suggested a high likelihood and significant potential impact of election violence as Kenya moved towards its latest round of national elections. During this preparedness period, OCHA, the Government of Kenya, and other humanitarian partners organized a number of preparedness activities, such as, risk assessment and mapping, scenario building, contingency planning, resource mobilization, pre-positioning of response resources, and situation reporting. National elections took place in early March 2013, and OCHA’s humanitarian preparedness work quickly wound down after election results were announced and it became clear that election violence had largely been avoided.

 

After the immediate risk abated, and supported by the Kenya Humanitarian Partnership Team

(KHPT), OCHA organized a lessons learned review (LLR) of this humanitarian preparedness

process. The review was facilitated by an external consultant and took place in late May 2013

while memories of front-line officers directly involved in the preparedness process were still

fresh.