The recent presidential election in Kenya was neither free nor fair and produced a result - the re-election of Mwai Kibaki - which defied the will of the people. Hundreds were killed in the violence that followed Mr Kibaki's disputed victory in an election that was stolen from the people of Kenya by blatant acts of electoral fraud, orchestrated by supporters of the president. The EU observers, who monitored the electoral process and the count, concluded that the presidential election had not met "international standards". For Kenya in particular and for Africa in general, the outbreak of ethnic violence has been a major setback. It represents a serious blow to the prospects for democracy in the region.
These were Kenya's 10th national elections since the country's independence in 1963, and the fourth since 1991, when a multi-party democracy replaced one party rule. Since then the country had become something of an exemplar of African democracy, albeit with a reputation badly tarnished by endemic corruption. Mr Kibaki, when first elected in 2002 as a reformist president, had promised to tackle the corruption issue. His subsequent failure to do so became a rallying point for his opponent, Raila Odinga, in the recent presidential contest.
This latest setback for democracy is mirrored by some similar and equally depressing events in another continent, Asia. In Pakistan, the assassination last month of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto came just weeks before a general election that her party was expected to win. Voting has been postponed until next month. In Thailand, the general election held on December 23rd produced a clear result but offered few guarantees for the future of democracy in that country.
There, the People Power Party (PPP) emerged as the largest party with almost half the parliamentary seats. The PPP is linked with Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006. Thailand's military backed interim government has challenged the result, alleging election fraud. It has sought to disqualify 65 successful PPP candidates. The junta's pre-emptive legal challenge is widely seen as a crude attempt to subvert the will of the people by overturning the election result in order to minimise the PPP's presence and influence in any government.
Since the 1930s, Thailand has experienced some 18 military coups. But since 1997, with the introduction of a democratic constitution, it has served for Asia - much as Kenya has for Africa - as something of a democratic role model until Mr Shinawatra's removal from office by armed force 18 months ago.
In Pakistan, as in Thailand, the lessons are clear and depressingly similar. Armies which seize power are always slow to hand it back to the people, as Mr Musharraf has shown in Pakistan, and as Thailand's military rulers have just demonstrated. Democracy remains a fragile plant. Once uprooted and damaged, it is not easily replanted and successfully restored.