We Are Still Counting Presidential Election Results- Nation Media Group

Mainstream media houses and many digital media houses in the country have been providing provisional presidential results to members of the public

Marvin Chege Marvin Chege
Aug 13, 2022 - 10:50 Updated: Aug 13, 2022 - 10:50
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We Are Still Counting Presidential Election Results- Nation Media Group
Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto. /VIRALTEAKE

The Nation Media Group (NMG) has explained why it slowed down on updating presidential results on its platforms, which generated chatters amongst keen members of the public.

In its media statement on Saturday, August 13, the media house assured Kenyans that it was still counting and publishing the election results but slowed down to reorganise its resources used to count the votes uploaded on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) portal.

It added that it was setting itself up to count the Form 34Bs uploaded into the system and to allow its team to validate its data.

A photo of Nation Media Group. /BUSINESS TODAY

"The Nation Media Group continues to tally and publish election results.

"However, updating of results slowed down due to a reorganisation of resources to tally Forms 34B released since yesterday, as well as to validate the data," it stated.

Mainstream media houses and many digital media houses in the country have been providing provisional presidential results to members of the public, though some media houses have been reporting numbers different from each other.

Since the vote tallying started on August 9, 2022, right after the closure of voting times, the IEBC availed its portal for Kenyans and media houses to access, though the astonishing numbers on screen and websites from different media houses had thrown members of the public into confusion.

Each media house has been getting Form 34As from the platform, curating them before broadcasting them on screen. However, some media houses have been faster than others in transmitting results due to their capability.

"The figures you see on the screen will keep going up, some media houses are faster than others, some are efficient," Citizen TV anchor, Yvonne Okwara explained the technique of transmission, with punctuality and acute data analysis being the key to the different figures.

Her colleague, Trevor Ombija, seemed to have a different perspective as he showed off the station's capability to present figures more accurately and effectively.

"Some people have more data analysts and have state-of-the-art equipment," Ombija noted.

NTV journalist, Daniel Mwangi noted that their figures were based on Form 34As picked at random from all constituencies.

"It depends on random Form 34As being used, but we can't declare that these are the final results," Mwangi stated.

For the media, the gathering and distribution of news content round the clock is a demanding task given that this is an audience with access to multiple platforms and screens. To meet the needs of audiences in Kenya and abroad, media houses have planned for 24-hour news coverage until the day IEBC announces the winner of the presidential ballot.

It is especially daunting when one has to consider that there are 46,229 Form 34As to gather, process and distribute at a quick speed that even tires the IEBC.

In that regard, each media house has an established data centre with teams working round the clock to process the results. This includes manually downloading Forms 34A from all the polling stations as loaded in the IEBC’s portal and tabulating them.

Media houses also have to deal with trust issues, given that misinformation during the election period is at its peak. It is all about a slow but accurate process that will turn into credibility, which in periods like these can make or break a media house.

Frederick Muitiriri alongside other NTV Swahili anchors. /FREDERICK MUITIRIRI.NTV

IEBC chairman, Wafula Chebukati, stated that the commission had wanted the media houses to come up with one report of the progress of the election results from a single source.

“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.”

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