Chebukati Admits Initial Plan For Media Houses Tallying Presidential Results

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman, Wafula Chebukati, has revealed that there was an intention to have media houses work together in transmitting presidential election results to members of the public.

Speaking during a media briefing at the Bomas of Kenya on Thursday, August 11, Chebukati stated that the commission had wanted the media houses; mainstream and digital, to come up with one report of the progress of the election results from a single source.

However, he added that media houses had opted to carry out their own tallying, which has been put on the spot due to the different provisional presidential election results streamed across the board, throwing Kenyans into confusion.

Screenshot of Citizen TV streaming provisional presidential results as of August 10, 2022. /YOUTUBE

Nonetheless, he expressed hope that media houses would come up with the same numbers, given that they are getting them from the IEBC portal.

“They are all getting the results from the same portal. Soon the figures will read the same,” Chebukati said.

“We hope media houses will end up with the same figures. The original intention was that media houses would have a consortium report of the progress of election results from one source. However, media houses opted to do it independently.”

Chebukati added that the tallies have been varying due to the workflow of individual media houses; with some having superior capability to others.

“The tallies across the media houses vary, and we appreciate that this may be so because each media house is accessing the public portal of the results forms at different times and each is using its own criteria and sequencing among other factors – including perhaps different amounts of resources deployed,” Chebukati explained.

He further urged Kenyans not to panic about the varying results streamed across TV stations and digital media houses, noting that at the end of the tallying process they will be harmonized so that they can look similar.

Chebukati announced that the National Returning Officer, himself, will be the one to announce and declare the final results.

“The final announcement and declaration of the results will be done by the National Returning Officer (Chebukati) here at Bomas.

"At the end of the tallying, they will be harmonized and will look similar because the results are from the same source. There should be no panic about the difference we are seeing on the media screens,” he said.

The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) had initially revealed in a statement on Wednesday, August 10 that it was consulting media owners and editors to find a way to provide synchronized results to Kenyans.

"Media Council has noted growing concern on the different election results being transmitted by media houses.

"The Media Council of Kenya is in consultation with Media Owners and Editors to find an urgent solution to this to ensure Kenyans receive synchronized results," the regulator stated.