Seek alternative tallying centers, schools urge IEBC Chair Chebukati

 IEBC Chair Wafula Chebukati. Photo: Boniface Okendo, Standard

Headteachers have urged the electoral agency not to use boarding secondary schools as polling and tallying centres to allow smooth learning during the election.

The national chairman of the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association, Kahi Indimuli, said tallying takes up to five days and cautioned that the process may eat into students' preparation time for the national examinations.

Mr Indimuli said alternative tallying centres would ensure that secondary schools, especially boarding institutions, do not close during the election.

"If elections are conducted on October 17 and our secondary boarding schools are used as tallying centres, it means that they must close on October 14," Indimuli said Wednesday in Nairobi.

The examination timetable shows that Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations will start on October 31.

Some 1.6 million candidates will sit the KCPE and KCSE examinations this year.