MPs pull plug on livestreaming of election results

Voters cast their ballots at Huruma Primary School polling station during the Ol Kalou parliamentary by-election. [Josphat Thiong’o, Standard]

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) will not be live-streaming results at polling stations in the forthcoming elections following a move by MPs to pass the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

This means members of the public will not be able to watch results being announced at polling stations in real time, as has been the case in previous elections.

The Bill, which was approved by the Senate before being passed by the National Assembly yesterday, contained a proposal to remove the express requirement for IEBC to establish a mechanism for live-streaming results as announced at polling stations. It sought to repeal and replace Section 39 of the Elections Act, a proposal approved by MPs.

The development now casts doubt on the transparency of the electoral process, which the opposition has already termed as shrouded in secrecy.

It also comes against the background of a court case challenging the previous legal framework, which required live-streaming but restricted the legal significance of the streamed results.

That framework stated that streamed results were for public information only and could not form the basis for the commission’s declaration. The constitutional dispute centred on that restriction, rather than simply on whether live-streaming should exist.

The Bill now omits the live-streaming requirement altogether from the replacement section, instead of expressly retaining it under a revised legal framework.

During debate on the Bill at the Committee of the Whole House stage yesterday, opposition and government-allied MPs locked horns over the fate of the proposal.

Broad-based government MPs argued that, since the Bill was government-sponsored, it was only right to delete the clause seeking to replace Section 39 of the Elections Act, which governs the determination, transmission and declaration of election results, rather than introduce amendments to the same.

They based their argument on the Kriegler Report, released following the 2007/2008 post-election violence, which advised against changing electoral laws at least one year before a General Election.

“First, I support the deletion because it is premised on a court ruling and all the decisions of the court are part of the law anyway. Secondly, we are just a few months to the General Election and as advised by the Kriegler report, we do not want to be seen as tinkering with a very important section of the election laws this close to the polls,” said Wajir East MP Aden Daud.

Leader of Majority Kimani Ichung’wah added: “While the report is not law, it would be foolish of us not to take recommendations that were considered by those before us...And we start tinkering with substantive electoral laws this close to the elections, we stand accused.”

Ichung’wah’s remarks were in response to Suba South MP Caroli Omondi, who had opposed the deletion of the section providing for live-streaming and instead formally proposed amendments for consideration by the House.

In his proposed amendments, Omondi sought to ensure that, in the presidential election, presiding officers would electronically transmit hourly voter-turnout figures throughout polling day from their respective polling stations to the constituency returning officers. The figures would be live-streamed on a public online portal maintained by IEBC.

His amendment to the Bill also sought to compel IEBC to establish a mechanism at the national results centre for live-streaming and displaying presidential election results as announced, as well as at the point of declaration in each constituency tallying centre, including results from the diaspora vote.

“The recommendation by Kriegler is just that, a proposal in a report; it is not a binding document to his House. We should not mislead the public that just because Kriegler gave us a report 14 years ago and there are some court rulings that are part of law now, we can’t legislate. That is running a scam on Kenyans!”

Leader of Minority Junet Mohamed, however, opposed the proposal, warning that changing the laws at this point risked sparking chaos.

“Changing electoral laws on the eve of the 2007 election is what brought violence. That is when the electoral commission was constituted in a manner not agreeable to all parties. Those are the things that we want to avoid,” said Junet.

Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo, in turn, argued that deleting the live-streaming clause masked the more important issues of opacity and delays in the declaration of election results.

“Why would Kenyans wait for eight, ten days to get presidential results whereas in a place like America they get results after 8 hours of voting?” posed Oundo.

Ultimately, the House voted to delete the clause providing for live-streaming before the Bill sailed through the third reading. It now awaits presidential assent.

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