“There’s a significant – and some could argue growing – chasm between rhetoric and reality,” says Jeffrey Smith, the founder of Vanguard Africa, a US consultancy that represents African opposition figures such as Uganda’s Bobi Wine and Martin Fayulu of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “I think that’s always a problem, because then America’s detractors can point to that very void, and they’re not wrong about that.”

According to our information, Martin Fayulu will ask members of the American Congress and the administration of Joe Biden that Washington closely follow the evolution of the situation of this strategic country of central Africa and contribute to guarantee free and fair elections in 2023. The United States had played a key role in the outcome of the December 2018 presidential election by supporting the victory of Félix Tshisekedi despite the fact that numerous irregularities had been denounced. Fayulu is determined to prevent history from repeating itself.

The major issues that Fayulu is expected to address in Washington, DC include “the current domestic situation, the many humanitarian emergencies, economic and political challenges, as well as the environment as it pertains to next year’s elections, which he views as very critical,” says African democracy activist Jeffrey Smith. Smith is helping to organize the trip as part of his firm Vanguard Africa’s contract to manage an “independent free and fair campaign” in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

18 months since his defeat in Uganda’s tainted presidential election, Bobi Wine is the one touring the world as his global stardom reaches new heights.

With elections scheduled for next year, Zimbabwe’s opposition and pro-democracy organizations are expressing concerns about recent appointments to the country’s electoral commission. For example, Jeffrey Smith, founder of pro-democracy outfit Vanguard Africa, believes free and fair elections in Zimbabwe remain elusive.

On the show this week, Marie-Noelle Nwokolo and pro-democracy activist Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, interrogate the role and relevance of election observer missions in light of Kenya’s recent election. Listen in on a candid conversation complementing processes in the quest to build substantive democracies.

I reached out to Jeffrey Smith, founding director of Vanguard Africa, to ask how it was going on election day. He and his team were monitoring polls in Kisumu, another hot spot for election violence in the past. “Some minor issues but nothing newsworthy or ominous yet,” he replied.

Jeffrey Smith, the Washington-based founding director of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy advocacy organization, says he finds Western inaction frustrating. “Museveni and the military regime have very carefully used the security question in Uganda as a cudgel to metaphorically bang the heads of U.S. policymakers into line,” he said.

“Fayulu is the most recent candidate to re-enter the US arena. A lobby filing made public this week reveals that the leader of the opposition party Engagement for Citizenship and Development hired a brand-new Washington advocacy firm, Future Pact LLC. … The firm is led by Bruce Fryer, and joining him on the contract is Jeffrey Smith of the pro-democracy nonprofit Vanguard Africa, which is managing an ‘independent free and fair campaign’ on behalf of Fayulu and organising disparate groups advocating for transparent elections in the DRC.”

“It seemed like a genuine effort on the part of the Biden administration to really stand together with democratic allies, here in the U.S. but also worldwide, and to start addressing these issues that have been quite honestly overlooked or otherwise ignored,” Jeffrey Smith, head of the pro-democracy advocacy group Vanguard Africa, said in an interview. … “When the U.S. is exhibiting strong leadership on democratic values and principles, people who are fighting for democracy in Uganda, for example, feel stronger and more emboldened, because they know that they have allies in Washington,” Smith explained. “These sorts of initiatives are not just symbolic. They’re really substantive in that regard.”