On Friday, the head of Kenya’s electoral commission blamed slow progress on disruptions from political parties, which he said were treating the process like a “forensic audit”. “Please don’t question the returning officers and slow down the process,” electoral body chairman Wafula Chebukati said during a press conference. “If we do that, then we won’t be able to complete this exercise.” The electoral commission has until August 16 to announce the results, but was expected to announce the winner within the week. Election observers say the long count is fueling public anxiety and misinformation. Unverified claims of rigging are beginning to surface. “It is important for both political sides to follow legal mechanisms if there are concerns, without inciting public sentiment or suggesting to the public that they should reject the result, because that amounts to public incitement,” said Javas Bigambo, an expert in matters of governance. Start your day with the top stories from the US, plus the day’s must-reads from across the Guardian Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The country’s elections have been held in its last three cycles. In 2017, Kenya’s highest court ordered a rerun of the poll due to “widespread discrepancies,” and in 2007, a disputed result led to deadly post-election violence. Reports show that public confidence in the electorate is at a paltry 26%. National media, political parties and the public conducted independent vote counts based on data released by the electoral commission. Experts say the move boosted public body image. But the parallel measurements faced some challenges. Some public groups lacked the resources and manpower to investigate the data, and conflicting national media reports caused some initial public confusion as different outlets ran the data. To the dismay of the public, the national media also abruptly stopped their counts at the height of the count on Thursday, without explanation. A leading station’s tallies showed the race would go down, with Ruto and Odinga separated by less than a percentage point with about 90% of the vote counted. The electoral commission is the only body that can announce the results. Governance experts say that while media and public counts are an important step toward transparency, an announcement from the electorate would carry more weight. “The media do not yet have the capacity and independence from the state that would allow them to call elections,” Bigambo said. “If only they completed their counting before IEBC [Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission], would put the IEBC under pressure to declare a winner even before completing the verification process. With our history, this could have led to political disaster.”
