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"speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
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"legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
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"content": "tallying of votes that are received by candidates. That is the only way we can ensure that elections truly reflect the free will of the people. There are many jurisdictions where elections are closed and the results are known almost at the close of the hour. In 2021, I was privileged to be invited by the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Ms. Patricia Scotland, to be an observer on behalf of Kenya in the Bahamas. The elections in the Bahamas closed at 6.00 p.m. By the time we were going back to our respective hotels at 9.00 p.m., the new Prime Minister who was taking over from the outgoing Prime Minister was on television. The results were out within a record four hours. However, in Kenya you would be lucky to know your presidential candidate within 48 hours. This idea of keeping people in anxiety and waiting restless in our tallying centres is not fair. Madam Temporary Speaker, I have a personal experience where elections are conducted on a Tuesday, and you will never be handed a certificate to come back to Nairobi as a Member of Parliament (MP) or a Senator till the third day. There is this fear among candidates that if you get out of a polling station, your results will be altered and the certificates of the winner be given to another. It is totally inhuman. You have to stay in a tallying centre for two nights until you get your results or certificate the third day. We cannot justify why we should be treated in such an inhuman way by the officials running our elections. With the technology and enhanced staff of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), we should know our results in real time. what makes it worse, we are among the few countries in the world where we do six elections in one. So, you have to wait for the tallying of the presidential results, and then go to the governor, Senator, Member of Parliament (MP), Women Representative and finally, the Member of the County Assembly (MCA). It is now going to be worse because we also made proposals to allow the presidential elections to be tallied first. You can imagine how contentious presidential results can be. If we do not create this offence of unreasonably delaying results, people can wait even up to four days. These are very progressive proposals. When the new Commissioners of IEBC are recruited, we challenge them to have this on top on the agenda. When His Excellency Hakainde Hichilema was being elected as president, we were in Zambia as observers. I was there with the then Speaker, Hon. Ken Lusaka. I was pleasantly surprised that their results are released in a much quicker time than in Kenya. I urge colleagues to support this very progressive amendment. This is for our own good as politicians. Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, you know how long it takes for you to get your results as a Senator. I am sure nobody gets his results on the same night the voting ends. You will be lucky to get them the following two nights. I do not know the experience from Nakuru, but it takes a very long time. Kenyans who appeared before us at National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) are not impressed at all. The aspiration and wishes of Kenyans are that the results should be done in real time. The other offence we are trying to address is alteration of results. I was privileged to handle the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga’s election petition in 2013. There is this defence that election officials always put in their responses. They will tell you that this was an unintentional mistake in transmitting results from Form A to B. A candidate may have scored 200 in Form A, but when the tallying is happening, the results will be exchanged The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}