Nairobi — The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has hastened the process of validating presidential results from constituencies in an effort to beat the seven-day constitutional deadline to declare the outcome of Tuesday's election.
As of 12.07am on Saturday, IEBC had confirmed 43 Form 34Bs of the 290 statutory forms from constituencies.
The tallying of the results, which began on Thursday, kicked off to a slow pace in what worried the already restless and anxious Kenyans who are waiting to know the outcome of the election.
"We have observed that we are not moving as fast as we should. Therefore, this exercise needs to be concluded as soon as possible," IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati said on Friday as he announced a 15-minute timeline for validation of each Form 34B in an effort to speed up the process.
The Commission scaled up verification desks at the Bomas of Kenya - the Commission's national tallying center -- from five to twelve.
The Commissioners are burning the midnight oil, releasing the constituency tallying at an average of a single Form 34B every 40 minutes.
"We are committed to releasing the results before the deadline," Commissioner Juliana Cherera said.
The validation exercise involved comparing results of the Forms 34A - generated from 46,229 polling stations across the country to Forms 34B containing constituency tallies submitted by 290 Returning Officers.
The validations of Form 34B tallies against Form 34As came about after a ruling by the Supreme Court in the 2017 presidential election petition which affirmed results declared at polling stations as final and the primary refence point for tallies.
Agents of the two leading presidential candidates - Raila Odinga (Azimio) and William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) -- had been blamed for delaying the verification process.
In four instances on Friday, the agents accused each other of conducting suspicious activities at the auditorium.
The teams clashed over laptops and printouts with the Azimio camp accusing the UDA side of holding uncleared gadgets.
The Commission had uploaded 238 forms 34B on its portal, equating to 81.79 per cent of constituencies.
IEBC denied reports of a system breakdown following a surge in unverified social media reports that alleged the Commission's portal had been compromised.
"Nothing like that has happened. It is misinformation," but the Commission's Chief Executive Officer Hussein Marjan assured.
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"We assure the whole country that our systems are secure... the mechanisms we have put in place are foolproof."
The social media platforms were awash with unverified claims about the results, with rights campaigners and civil society groups accusing both candidates' camps of sharing misleading posts.
Observers monitoring the election had since lauded the Commission for conducting a peaceful election on Tuesday.
The Commission said it was keen on ensuring transparency and openness prevails until the exercise concludes.
But even as the wait continued, Chebukati warned the two leading presidential candidates against declaring themselves as winners amid the anxiety over the final results.
Chebukati, who is the Returning Officer for the presidential election, reminded the top contenders that he is the only one mandated by law to declare the winner.
"No one should declare themselves winner or release their own results," he said during an update early Friday at the Bomas of Kenya, "that is the work of the Commission and the Returning Officer," he went on to add.
