Kenyans will be denied access to election results until the winner is announced if a new Bill proposing to ban live streaming of the presidential results is adopted ahead of the August 2022 General Election.
Under the current law, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) is mandated to provide information and establish a mechanism for the live streaming of results as announced at the polling stations.
However, if enacted, the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2021 will scrap the live streaming of presidential election results either by broadcast or online platforms.
This according to a bill by the Leader of Majority in the National Assembly Amos Kimunya seeking to safeguard the transmission of the presidential results from the polling stations to the national tallying centre.
The Bill further recommends that a Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the image of the results in the prescribed form to the national tallying centre.
“The presiding officer shall then deliver the results in person from the polling station to the constituency tallying centre,
“The Constituency Returning Officer shall then collate the results in the prescribed form and deliver them in person from the polling station together with the collated form to the national tallying centre,” state the bill.
This comes following the dramatic 2017 General Election where in some instances, the presidential results announced at the polling stations did not tally with those transmitted to the national tallying centre, a move that saw the presidential election land in the Supreme Court.
To enhance transparency, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati had last year said the commission will acquire multiple servers to provide access to the media, presidential candidates and the public in the August 9, elections.
“To enhance transparency, accuracy, verification and promptness in election results management, the commission will deploy multiple servers and provide access to the media, presidential candidates and public portal,
“This will put to rest the suspicions levelled against the Results Transmission System in the past,” said Wafula Chebukati.
