The Lower Eastern Times Opening The Third Eye
Former Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has proposed a dual tallying system for the 2027 presidential election that would enable Kenyans to monitor both verified and unverified results as they are received.
In a statement shared on his official X account, Kuria called on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to livestream the verification of physical Forms 34 at the National Tallying Centre.
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He argued, however, that livestreaming alone would not be enough to guarantee transparency, proposing a parallel tally based on electronic results transmitted by constituency returning officers.
Under the proposed arrangement, the IEBC would maintain a public online portal showing an unverified national tally as electronic presidential results arrive from constituencies.
At the same time, the commission would compile a separate tally based on physical Forms 34 submitted to the national centre and verified by election officials.
This would result in two sets of presidential results for every constituency: an electronic tally that remains unverified and a second tally based on verified physical election documents.
Kuria said the arrangement would allow voters, election observers and other stakeholders to compare the figures and identify any differences between electronically transmitted results and the corresponding physical forms.
He suggested that if the two tallies matched consistently during the 2027 election, Kenya could consider relying entirely on electronic results for the 2032 presidential election, potentially reducing the need for lengthy verification proceedings at the national tallying centre.
“If there is none in 2027, we run 2032 based purely on electronic forms and save the country that meaningless drama at Bomas. My 2 cents,” Kuria said.
The former Cabinet Secretary cited his experience observing presidential election tallying at the national level, saying he followed the process at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in 2007 and at Bomas of Kenya in 2013, 2017 and 2022.
He said that experience had informed his views on how the country could improve the transparency and efficiency of presidential results management.
Kuria’s proposal comes amid an ongoing debate over the legal framework governing the transmission and publication of election results ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Concerns emerged after Parliament considered amendments to the Elections Act that initially appeared to remove the legal requirement for the IEBC to livestream election results.
The National Assembly later stated that it had deleted Clause 22 of the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2024, leaving intact the existing Section 39 provision requiring the commission to establish a mechanism for livestreaming results announced at polling stations.
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah has also maintained that Parliament did not abolish the livestreaming requirement, pointing to Section 39(1G) of the Elections Act.
“The streamed results are for public information only and shall not be the basis for declaration by the Commission. That is the law as it is, and it has not changed,” Ichung’wah previously stated.
The dispute has also reached the courts, with advocate John Muremi Njomo filing a petition challenging the changes to electoral law and raising questions about the live transmission of presidential results.
Justice David Mburu certified the petition as urgent and directed that the matter be mentioned on November 2 for further directions.
