Pressure is now piling on Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) as they have less than 48 hours to release Presidential election results.
Four days after polls closed, IEBC has managed to release only 38% of the results, due to a long verification process (see info-graphic bottom). They now have up to Monday to release the remaining 62% and declare a winner or a tie.
IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati on Saturday announced new measures to reduce on the number of people interfering with the tallying, but was confident they will have a result end of Sunday or early on Monday. Verified by 2am today are only 113 constituencies out of 291.
The IEBC is now hosting all but one returning officer from across the country who have to verify forms 34A and B at the Bomas of Kenya, before results are released.
The election body on Friday announced that one of their returning officers in the capital city is missing. The matter has been handed to police, but election counting will continue.
Odinga maintains lead
Azimo La Umoja flag bearer Raila Odinga maintains a lead of about 100,000 votes in the Official results. He has so far garnered 50.01% of the voted (2,826,080). William Ruto of UDA is second at 49.34% (2,787,871).
Odinga’s running mate Martha Karua fell short of declaring victory for her side Saturday at a Nairobi meeting of the party’s leaders from the whole country.
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“It is because we disrupted the chest thumping boast and made it idle, that we are now waiting for the election to be called for us,” Karua said.
She hailed the party’s campaign team for eating into UDA’s strongholds, especially in the Mount Kenya region.
“Even where no seat came, votes still came… they may not have been as many as we hoped, but you can imagine if those votes had gone the way some chest thumping fellows were announcing they would go, then, it would have been called out for them on the first day.”
She was confident her party has won the Presidential election. “Ours was a great campaign and we now have our win being tallied. This was a four month campaign versus a four year campaign, ” said Karua, a former Justice minister.
Kenya on Tuesday held its seventh general election since the introduction of multiparty politics in 1991 where voters lined to elect the country’s fifth president, members of the National Assembly, senators, and county governors. Kenyans voted for 16,105 candidates, who are vying for a total of 1,879 elective positions.
Kenya election RESULTS 2am Odinga – 50.01% 2,826,080 votes
Ruto – 49.34% 2,787,871
Wajackoyah – 0.42% 23,758
Waihiga- 0.23% 12,938
* 113 constituencies out of 291 (38%)
