The People’s Coalition on Electoral Reforms would like to state that the judicial outcome of the petition E757 of 2025, Okiya Omtatah Vs IEBC delivered yesterday marks an invaluable checkpoint in our Republic’s history.
The judgment outlines the critical structural boundaries governing our democracy. Regardless of the legal technicalities extracted from yesterday’s ruling, the political and constitutional reality remains unaltered: Kenya will not, and cannot, endure another election where the sovereign will of the people is subverted inside an opaque centralized tallying centre. The ghosts of the 2007/2008 post-election violence serve an eternal, institutional warning that we categorically refuse to relive.
We salute and celebrate the exceptional public service, patriotism, and rule-of-law vigilance displayed by Senator Okiya Omtatah [Busia County] and his fellow petitioners in bringing and prosecuting the case that led to this judgement. Their continuous defense of constitutionalism mirrors the very soul of the People’s Coalition. Their effort and consequent judgement has laid bare the legal contradictions within the current Elections Act, which ouster the anticipated constitutional elections integrity administrative compliance.
Our position to the IEBC, to Parliament, and to the Executive is unmistakably clear: An election is won or lost at the polling station, which was affirmed by the judgement read yesterday. This was also affirmed in the landmark jurisprudence of IEBC v Maina Kiai (2017). Any statutory provision or administrative maneuver that seeks to maintain a centralized clearinghouse under the guise of a ‘National Tallying Centre‘ to alter, delay, or re-verify results already publicly declared at the 290 constituencies and the diaspora electoral units is in our considered view ultra vires, illegal, and void to that extent. Articles 83, 86, and 138 of the Constitution explicitly restrict the IEBC Chairperson to a singular role: the declaration of results, already verified, tallied and declared in the 290 Constituency Tallying Centres and diaspora, not to “tally and verify the results received at the National tallying centre” as purported by Elections (General) Regulation, 83 (3).
To ground the judicial moment yesterday in immediate, practical legislative action, the People’s Coalition has already finalized extensive, statutory amendments to the Elections Act and the Elections (General) regulations. These amendments have been formally submitted to the Hon. Caroli Omondi, MP Suba South [Secretary General of Azimio Coalition Party & Linda Mwananchi], for immediate tabling in Parliament this week. The People’s Coalition’s Elections Amendment Bill will undo the ambiguous statutory language that the IEBC has historically exploited to host the National Tallying Centre. The People’s Coalition will also submit the said amendments to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) of the National Assembly during the public participation process of the current Elections Amendment Bills before the house of Parliament. Our amendments mandate a completely decentralized, read-only electoral results management infrastructure for the media, candidates/political parties & the IEBC Chairperson, giving pure architectural effect to the constitutional dictates of Articles 1, 38, 81, 86 & 138.
We wish to highlight the following proposed amendments: –
- THE ELECTIONS ACT
- Amend Section 39 (1A)(c) of the Elections Act by deleting the words ‘the collated results for the election of the President to the national tallying centre’.
- Amend Section 39 (1C) by replacing the current section with the following new section ‘For purposes of a Presidential election —
(a) the Presiding Officers shall electronically transmit throughout, by the hour, on voting day, the voter-turnout of an election for the President for their respective polling station to the Returning Officer at the Constituency Tallying Centre, which shall be live-streamed and displayed on a big screen at the Constituency Tallying Centre.
(b) the Presiding Officers shall electronically transmit and physically deliver the tabulated results of an election for the President from a polling station to the Returning Officer at the Constituency Tallying Centre.
(c) the Returning Officer shall tally and verify the results received at the Constituency Tallying Centre and;
(d) declare the Presidential results for that Constituency, publish the result forms on an online public portal maintained by the Commission, live-stream the declaration of the said Presidential results, which shall be displayed on a big screen at the Constituency Tallying Centre.’
- Amend Section 39 (1D) by replacing the current section with the following new section. The new section to read ‘The Returning Officer shall verify that the results transmitted to the Constituency Tallying Centre are an accurate record of the votes counted, tallied and announced at the respective polling stations.’
- Amend Section 39 (1G) by replacing the current section with the following new section ‘The Commission shall establish a mechanism for the live-streaming and display of Presidential election results as announced at polling stations, and at the point of declaration in each of the 290 Constituencies tallying centre, plus the diaspora vote.’
- Amend Section 39 (1H) with this new section to replace the current one, ‘The Chairperson of the Commission shall, in an open Public space within the Capital city of Kenya, aggregate and declare the result of the election of the President in accordance with Article 138 (10), taking into consideration the provision of Article 138 (4) of the Constitution; Provided that before declaring the result, the Chairperson shall in a lives-stream announce Constituency by Constituency results as tallied, verified and declared by the Returning officers in the 290 Constituencies and diaspora.
- Amend Section 39 (3) by deleting it.
- ELECTIONS (GENERAL) REGULATIONS
- Regulations 83 (1) and (2) of the Elections (General) Regulations be deleted in so far as they purport that the Constituency Returning Officer shall transmit/deliver at the National Tallying Centre the announced constituency presidential results to the Chairperson of the IEBC and gives the Chairperson an unconstitutional function to “….tally and verify the results received at the national tallying centre.”
- Regulation 87 of the Elections (General) Regulations be deleted in so far as it purports to unconstitutionally require the Constituency Returning Officer in sub-regulation 1(b) to “deliver to the National tallying centre all the Form 34B from the respective polling stations and the summary collation forms’. Regulation 87 (3) be deleted since its gives an unconstitutional effect to the Chairperson of IEBC to, “(a) verify the results against Forms 34A and 34B received from the constituency returning officer at the national tallying centre; (b) tally and complete Form 34C; (c) announce the results for each of the presidential candidates for each County; (d) sign and date the forms and make available a copy to any candidate or the national chief agent present”.
The proposed deletions will cure the legal conundrum that has landed us to a national tallying centre that in our considered view is not constitutionally contemplated nor mandating extra-constitutional functions for the IEBC Chairperson.
This proposed elimination of the National Tallying Centre is merely the first column of the mandatory five-pillar reforms launched by the People’s Coalition last week on the International Day of Democracy. We have proposed other critical amendments to the Elections (Technology) Regulations and the Elections Offences Act.
We also note with disappointment, that the IEBC has rushed to re-issue the technology tender without complying with the orders of the Public Procurement Review Board and High Court. Moreover, it has failed to take into consideration the People’s Coalition demands on election technology. Due to these circumstances, the People’s Coalition shall move to take appropriate legal action compelling the IEBC to issue a fresh election technology tender based on specifications that give the intended constitutional effect and purpose of a decentralized, modular election technology architecture. For clarity, we reject any corrupt attempt to bundle registration, biometrics, and results transmission into a single-vendor, monolithic tender or contract. The IEBC must adopt a decentralized, modular electoral technology system. We demand full public disclosure of source codes, server configurations, and a strict requirement that all KIEMs kits be geo-fenced within 50 meters of gazetted and geo-referenced polling stations, with independent escrow deposits secured by 31st January 2027 and full public load testing completed by 27th July 2027. IEBC must start anew on procurement of election technology, with publication of the Policy on Election Technology. This should be followed by a requirement analysis report, and then a solution design and feasibility report which would then inform the election technology procurement specifications report and a deployment plan. IEBC must publish all these documents and undertake a rigorous public participation process prior to undertaking an open tendering process devoid of corrupt dealings.
We explicitly caution the political establishment and any recalcitrant actors within the IEBC or Parliament who intend to slow-walk, obstruct, or dilute these reforms, that the sovereign power of this Republic belongs exclusively to the People of Kenya under Article 1 of the Constitution. If the state attempts to force Kenyans into another opaque, unconstitutional election cycle in August 2027, the People of Kenya shall exercise their sovereign and inalienable right to determine their governance.
We stand ready to support a transparent Electoral process by the IEBC and other Election institutions, but we remain vigilant against institutional sabotage. The reforms are clear and the deadlines are set. The people are organized.