The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will not be compelled to livestream presidential election results as announced by Returning Officers if a proposed law is enacted.
The government-sponsored Elections (Amendment) Bill 2024 currently before the Senate, seeks to delete section 39 of the Elections Act and introduce another one that among others, does not require IEBC to facilitate livestreaming of presidential election results.
“The new section has omitted the provisions providing for the requirement for the IEBC to establish a mechanism for the livestreaming of results as announced at polling stations to facilitate public information,” the proposed law reads.
Currently, the commission is required to livestream the election results at the national tallying centre as announced at the polling stations. It is from these here that the media picks the information and broadcast it.
The Bill, jointly sponsored by Senate Majority leader Aaron Cheruiyot (Kericho) and his Minority counterpart Stewart Madzayo (Kilifi), is a product of the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco).
The Nadco team, which drew membership from the ruling Kenya Kwanza and the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition, was established following deadly protests immediately after President William Ruto was declared the winner in the August 9, 2022 presidential election.
In 2022, the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) of the National Assembly, then chaired by Kangema MP Muturi Kigano, overruled IEBC’s proposal not to livestream presidential election results. The commission, then chaired by Mr Wafula Chebukati, wanted the law that compelled it to llivestream the results repealed but the committee opposed this, saying doing so would defeat the purpose of enhancing transparency in the announcement and declaration of the election results.
“The commission shall establish a mechanism for the livestreaming of the presidential election results as announced at the polling stations,” the committee recommended in its report tabled in the House adding that “livestreaming of election results is one way of conforming to the constitutional principles of transparency and accountability.”
“Kenyans should be able to compare the live-transmitted results with the final declared results to confirm the accuracy of the election results,” the committee said.
The Bill proposes that the commission shall electronically transmit the results within two hours of the declaration of the result from a polling station to the constituency tallying centre, national tallying centre, the candidates or their agents and observers. It adds that where the results are not transmitted within two hours, the Returning Officers responsible shall provide reasons “in a prescribed form.”
The Returning Officers shall after declaring the election results, be required to physically deliver the tabulated results from a polling station to the constituency tallying centre and to the national tallying centre.
If enacted in the current form, it means that Kenyans will have to access the digital image of the forms 34A—which contain presidential election results as declared at the polling stations— from the IEBC portal and do their own tallying to get a feel of who is winning.
The Bill has also omitted provisions on where there is a discrepancy between the electronically transmitted and physically delivered results. It has further omitted the requirement that any failure to transmit or publish the election results in an electronic format shall not invalidate the result as announced and declared.
