Members of the National Assembly have passed a bill seeking to remove the legal requirement for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to livestream election results as they are announced at polling stations.
The Elections (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2024, proposes changes to Section 39 of the Elections Act ahead of the August 2027 General Election.
The proposed changes have sparked debate over electoral transparency, with critics warning that removing mandatory livestreaming could limit public access to real-time results announcements.
Former Chief Justice David Maraga has opposed the move, arguing that Kenya must protect the integrity and transparency of its electoral process.
Maraga said he would work with the People’s Coalition for Electoral Reforms to resist what he described as a rollback of electoral transparency, citing lessons from the 2007/08 post-election violence.
Livestreaming has enabled voters, political parties, journalists and election observers to monitor the announcement of results at polling stations and compare the figures with those subsequently transmitted and tallied.
However, removing the legal requirement to livestream results does not necessarily mean the IEBC will stop electronically transmitting results or publishing polling-station results forms online.
The commission would still be expected to follow the applicable legal procedures for verifying, tallying, and declaring election results under the final framework.
The Bill was approved by the Senate in December 2024 before being forwarded to the National Assembly for consideration.
Its passage in the National Assembly has renewed scrutiny of the electoral safeguards that will govern the 2027 General Election.
The remaining legislative steps will determine whether the proposed changes become law and how they affect the public’s ability to monitor election results in real time.
