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{
"id": 1480912,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1480912/?format=api",
"text_counter": 145,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
"slug": "bonny-khalwale"
},
"content": "So, you will find counting has been done, and the election officials in the polling station will keep on sitting there until 1.00 a.m., 2.00 a.m., or 3.00 a.m. By that time, all agents have become fatigued, they are asleep and now the people who count the votes start deciding the outcome. I want to find an innovative way where we can demand, by law, that announcement by a presiding officer should be within a particular time frame. At the county election, I normally get my results after four days. So, when you ask the county returning officer, he tells you, ‘I am still tallying.’ They will move from that point to this point. I remember when I lost my election, which was very surprising. It is difficult for me to lose an election in Kakamega and the Speaker knows this. When I lost the election in 2017, I was so surprised, and I decided to create my own IEBC. In 2022, I created my own tallying centre, fully-fledged. Within eight hours of voting, I already knew the outcome of my election. However, I had to wait four days for the returning officer to say that I was the winner.This was with a lot of experience, and I believe Sen. Oketch Gicheru has this experience too. He ran into similar turbulent clouds. Colleagues, you had better take this as your own experience and set up your own tallying centre. When they discover that you have got your tallying centre, they then respect you. Since for every polling station, you have a result, for every constituent, you have a result, they become cautious. I remember in Likuyani Constituency, in 2022, a whopping 6,000 votes had been removed. We just called the returning officer and told him: “Look, even if you must steal, we know we have won. We can leave you these 6,000 votes and we shall still win”. This amendment to the law is crucial. Clause 6(d) speaks to the offence of wilfully preventing any person from voting at the polling station, at which they know or have reasonable cause to believe such a person is entitled to vote. This is a common problem. If you go to a populous polling station like Khayega in Shinyalu, Malinya in Ikolomani, or Muliro Gardens in Lurambi, if you are popular there, you will find women who do not know how to read and write, probably ten of them, sometimes more. They have been sitting there since 6.00 a.m., but have been told they will not vote for some strange reason. So, this offence that has been put there is to put in check some presiding officers who become rogue. You talk to the police, they look this side. Those kinds of things must be addressed. Before I end, there was a bad experience in Kakamega and Mombasa counties in 2022 when IEBC postponed an election. The governor's election was just postponed in Mombasa and Kakamega. It did not make sense to us; how would you postpone an election? People have gone to vote, but they find the election is not taking place, and some people get so disgusted that they go back home without voting. Therefore, that affects the other five elections since you only postponed one election. 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."
}