Kenya’s National Assembly has approved the Elections (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, 2024, removing the legal requirement for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to livestream election results as they are announced at polling stations.
The Bill, already passed by the Senate in December 2024, repeals and replaces Section 39 of the Elections Act. Its Memorandum of Objects and Reasons explicitly drops “the requirement for IEBC to establish a mechanism for the live-streaming of results as announced at polling stations to facilitate public information.”
What stays in place
- Results declared at individual polling stations remain final.
- IEBC must still transmit results electronically (within two hours for presidential results) to constituency and national tallying centres, candidates, agents and observers.
- Scanned Forms 34A will continue to be published on the IEBC public portal.
- Physical delivery of tabulated results is still required.
The change does not eliminate electronic transmission or online publication of results. It only removes the specific statutory duty for a live public feed of the announcements themselves.
The proposal originated from the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) formed after the disputed 2022 presidential election and was jointly sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot and Minority Leader Stewart Madzayo.
Supporters describe it as a technical clean-up that aligns the law with earlier court rulings (the live streaming provision was declared unconstitutional by the High Court in 2018 and upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2023).
The Bill now awaits presidential assent to become law.
