Election observer Jeffrey Smith of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy group, has said that the trove of leaked election data “cast doubt on the validity of the final results” and, while perhaps not material enough to change the outcome of the presidential election, “demonstrates the need for reforms to ensure transparency and integrity of Kenyan elections.”

In an interview with News24, his friend Jeffrey Smith, the founder of Vanguard Africa, a democracy thought leadership platform, said he will always remember Maseko.

"He was a genuine son of the soil, equally proficient on the farm with his family, as he was in the courtroom where he bravely challenged the Swazi monarchy and its overreach. 

"He was a fierce proponent of democratic rights in a country in which such activities were criminalised. He could cite lengthy passages from the Bible and Nelson Mandela’s biography alike, often rooting his activism on the wisdom contained in those pages. He was a friend and a fighter, and I will miss him dearly," he said.

Foreign Policy published on 30 May a commentary titled “Putin’s World Order Would Be Devastating for Africa” by Joseph Siegle and Jeffrey Smith of Vanguard Africa. “Putin is taking a sledgehammer to the foundation of the once stable post-World War II order,” they wrote, “by normalizing geographic expansionism.  Would be tsars in Africa are watching to see if Putin gets away with this brazen overreach and violation of established borders.”

Rusesabagina’s detainment was not enough to keep Rwanda from participation in the Africa Summit in Washington this week, a fact that did not escape the attention of Jeffrey Smith, the founding director of Vanguard Africa, a nonprofit focused on free and fair elections and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa.

“If the Biden Administration is sincere about building on ‘shared values’ and advancing equitable relationships with African citizens,” Smith wrote in a recent Time Magazine op-ed, “then investments beyond retrograde strongmen like Paul Kagame would be an ideal place to start.”

Some human rights activists have criticized the attendance of Mr. Kagame at the summit. Writing for Time this week, Jeffrey Smith, an activist who promotes democracy in sub-Sarahan Africa, said: “Rwanda’s president stands out as particularly cunning and ruthless in his full-throttle consolidation of political power back home.”

In an article penned for the Foreign Policy journal, Jeffrey Smith, director of non-profit Vanguard Africa, and Tutu Alicante, executive director of non-profit EG Justice, claimed last month more than 100 individuals, including lawyers, judges, and civil society and political opposition activists, had been arbitrarily detained, amid reports of torture and killings.

Jeffrey Smith, the head of Vanguard Africa, a nonprofit organization that works on issues related to free and fair election and ethical leadership, said Obiang uses the election to show how popular he is in the country but instills fear in his people to remain in power.

“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.