President William Ruto has come out strongly in defence of the proposed changes to the Elections Act, saying some opposition leaders are using the livestreaming of results to mislead Kenyans, especially the youth. He spoke on Sunday during a church service at AIC Kasina in Mwingi town, where he insisted that the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2024 does not touch the livestreaming of election results at all.
According to the President, the public has every right to see election results as soon as they are announced. He wondered out loud why anyone would want to stop results from being shared live, saying the faster Kenyans know the outcome, the better they understand how voting is going and what the final numbers are likely to be. He also said some people have been spreading propaganda about election laws that do not even ban livestreaming, calling the claims nonsense.
The debate comes days after the National Assembly passed the Elections (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2024. The law requires the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to send presidential election results electronically within two hours of their declaration at polling stations. If the commission fails to transmit the results, it will have to give reasons in a set format to constituency and national tallying centres, candidates or their agents, and election observers within the stipulated time.
The Bill also makes it compulsory for the IEBC to publish polling station results forms on its public online portal. Those figures must then be checked against the results that were recorded and announced at each polling station. For many Kenyans who have lost faith in the electoral process over the years, this is a big deal, because it means anyone can compare the official numbers with what happened on the ground.
Even so, the proposed changes have not gone down well with everyone. Online, many young people have expressed anger, and some have threatened to take to the streets to oppose the Bill. Ruto has asked the leaders who are encouraging these young people to stop mobilising them for protests. He told Kenyans to first read and understand the proposed changes before rejecting them outright.
The President also tied the current mood to the 2024 Finance Bill, which set off nationwide youth-led protests and caused a lot of chaos across the country. He admitted that the Bill was eventually dropped after Parliament gave its approval, but he insisted it was not a bad law in the first place. In his view, it was the propaganda from the opposition that poisoned the public's mind. He accused the same people of trying to repeat that game now, months before the 2027 General Elections.
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