MPs Reject Two-Hour Rule on Presidential Election Results as 2027 Poll Nears

Kenya’s electoral transparency debate has taken a new turn after Members of Parliament rejected Senate proposals seeking to compel the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to transmit presidential election results electronically within two hours of their declaration at polling stations.

The rejected proposals were part of the Elections (Amendment) Bill, which sought to introduce changes to how presidential votes are transmitted, tallied, verified and communicated to Kenyans. The amendments had been negotiated through the National Dialogue Committee involving representatives of President William Ruto and the late Raila Odinga.

Under the Senate’s proposal, IEBC would have been required to electronically transmit results within two hours after declaration at polling stations. The results would then be shared with constituency and national tallying centres, presidential candidates, their agents and accredited election observers.

The proposed changes were intended to give Kenyans access to election results as they moved through the tallying process. They would also have allowed voters to compare figures announced at polling stations with those eventually declared at constituency and national tallying centres.

Suba South MP Caroli Omondi had also proposed establishing a mechanism for live-streaming presidential election results from constituency tallying centres and the diaspora. His proposal sought to make it easier for the public to follow the verification, aggregation and declaration of presidential results.

However, the proposals faced opposition in the National Assembly, where Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma, supported by Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, successfully pushed for their deletion. The decision attracted criticism from lawmakers who wanted stronger legal safeguards for election transparency.

Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo questioned why Parliament was abandoning proposals that had emerged from negotiations under the National Dialogue Committee. He argued that Kenyans needed clear procedures to prevent delays and improve confidence in presidential election results transmission.

Embakasi West MP Mark Mwenje also raised concerns, questioning how the public would access presidential election results if the proposed amendments were removed. He maintained that Parliament needed to address how results would be communicated to citizens.

The debate is also connected to previous court decisions concerning Section 39(1G) of the Elections Act. The High Court declared the provision unconstitutional because it treated livestreamed polling station results as information for public consumption rather than a basis for declaring final results.

Despite the controversy, the National Assembly maintained that its decision did not amount to banning livestreaming. Lawmakers argued that the existing legal provision remained in place, while warning against making substantial changes to electoral laws less than one year before the 2027 General Election.

The development leaves questions about how IEBC will handle real-time transmission and public access to presidential election results during the next General Election. With political leaders and lawmakers holding different positions, the issue of electoral transparency is likely to remain central to preparations for the 2027 polls.

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