NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug10 – The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was on Wednesday yet to begin the verification exercise of votes cast in the general election 18 hours after polls were closed.
While the Commission is constitutionally bound to declare the results of the presidential election before August 16, 2022, minimal activity was taking place at its main tallying centre at the Bomas of Kenya.
The electoral body Chairperson Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday night launched the result transmission phase, an exercise that precedes verification of results received from all the 46 229 polling stations countrywide.
As of 11.00 pm, the Commission had received a total of 45 940 form 34As – presidential results from the polling station – equating to 99.37 per cent.
The Commission was, however, yet to start receiving forms 34B that capture the presidential results at the constituency level.
“No physical Returning Officer has come to Bomas,” Commissioner Francis Wanderi said.
Commissioner Wanderi noted that the Commission would only begin verifying the results once they have received all the forms 34A and 34B.
“We will wait for all the 290 constituencies to deliver all the forms and begin checking and verifying them,” he said.
The verification exercise entails checking whether the data captured on form 34A correspond with those tabulated in form 34B.
“It will take time, but we hope we should be starting to receive the forms soon,” Commissioner Wanderi said.
The complicated process of verifying and tallying votes is expected to take days, and IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati urged Kenyans on Wednesday to be patient, keen to avoid rigging allegations that have haunted previous polls.
Chebukati had disclosed that some form 34Bs of different regions which were incomplete had been uploaded on the portal.
The regions include: Ainabkoi Constituency – Uasin County and Saboti Constituency.
Whereas the Commission appeared not to be in a rush to start beaming the results, figures released by a section of media houses doing their own parallel tallying revealed that the presidential race was tight and too close to call.
The provisional results show that the front runners Deputy President William Ruto of Kenya Kwanza Alliance and Raila Odinga of Azimio La umoja are neck-to-neck in a race that will go down to the wire until all the votes are counted.
The Commission said nearly 14.2 million voters participated in the polls, a 65.4 per cent voter turnout derived from the Kenya Integrated Management System (KIEMS) kits.
Chebukati pointed out that the final voter turnout figure will be compiled after reconciling the number of voters whose identity was captured using the manual register.
“The voter turnout is based on verifying the KIEMS kits, which were functional during the voting process,” he stated.
The Commission had registered some 22.1 million voters to participate in the polls.
With pressure building on the Commission to declare the results latest by August 16, officials at the Bomas of Kenya are confident that they will beat the deadline.
The Commission is on Thursday morning scheduled to issue a status update.
