Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has filed a constitutional petition seeking to dismantle the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s National Tallying Centre, arguing that its very existence violates the supreme law and has been the root cause of Kenya’s repeated presidential election crises.
In papers lodged at the High Court, Omtatah contends that Articles 86 and 138 of the Constitution create a clear, final and constituency-based system for counting, tallying and declaring presidential results. Votes are counted at polling stations, collated at constituency tallying centres, and announced publicly by constituency returning officers. Those announcements, he insists, are intended to be final and binding.
Section 39 of the Elections Act, which established the national centre and empowered the IEBC chairperson to verify, alter or re-tally constituency results before declaring a winner, is therefore unconstitutional, the petition states. The senator describes the provision as legislative overreach that has repeatedly sown confusion and invited manipulation in the 2013, 2017 and 2022 elections.
“The National Tallying Centre has no place in our constitutional design,” Omtatah argues. “It duplicates roles, undermines transparency and gives the chairperson dangerous discretion to override results that the Constitution says are final at constituency level.”
He further challenges regulations that allow the IEBC chairperson to announce a president-elect before all constituency forms are physically delivered to Nairobi, saying such practice confirms that constituency declarations are conclusive.
The petition also names Parliament for enacting contradictory laws and the Attorney General for failing to advise successive governments that the national verification process is unlawful.
Omtatah wants the court to strike down Section 39 of the Elections Act and issue a permanent injunction barring the IEBC from establishing or operating any national centre with powers to interfere with constituency results.
With Kenya still scarred by bitter disputes over the 2022 presidential tally, the case is almost certain to reignite debate about whether the country’s electoral framework needs fundamental surgery or merely better officials. Whatever the judgment, it will shape how the nation chooses its next president in 2027.
(348 words)
