Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati has urged Kenyans not to worry about the different Presidential results displayed by media houses.
In a press address at the Bomas of Kenya on Thursday noon, Chebukati said that the difference in the results displayed is dependent on the workflow of individual media houses.
“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.
The IEBC boss further assured Kenyans that all media houses will have similar results when the Presidential tallying reaches its end, since their data is from a central place.
“The final announcement and declaration of the results will be done by the National Returning Ofiicer (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.
Chebukati added that the Kenya Media Sector Working Group sought IEBC’s permission to share the data on election results.
“In the spirit of transparency, the commission gave media access to polling stations, tallying centres and the results portal to report the progress of the elections results in real-time from one source,” he said.
“The media houses opted to do it independently, which was a decision beyond the commission’s control.”
Kenyans had been raising concerns about the different tallies displayed on TV screens and websites of local media companies.
A section of Kenyans accused the press of being biased towards certain candidates.
