The public could be locked out of watching election results as they are announced at polling stations if a proposed law seeking to overhaul Kenya's electoral process is approved by Parliament.
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 proposes deleting the legal requirement that compels the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to livestream results from polling stations.
If the proposal sails through, the commission will no longer be required by law to provide the live results feed that millions of Kenyans and media houses have relied on during previous presidential elections.
The proposed amendment is contained in Section 19 of the Bill, which seeks to remove subsection 39(1G) of the Elections Act. The current provision requires IEBC to establish a mechanism for the "livestreaming of results as announced at polling stations" and states that the broadcasts are meant "for purposes of public information only."
Removing the provision means Kenyans would no longer have a legal guarantee of following election results in real time as they are announced across the country. Instead, they would have to wait for IEBC to officially announce the results or manually access the election forms after transmission.
The livestreaming system was introduced as one of the measures aimed at improving transparency and restoring public confidence in presidential elections following the 2007 post-election violence. During the 2013, 2017 and 2022 General Elections, the platform allowed millions of Kenyans to monitor the tallying process from the National Tallying Centre.
Constitutional lawyer Bobby Mkangi argued that removing the requirement weakens one of the safeguards that promote open and verifiable elections.
"It amounts to the categorical removal of the statutory requirement for livestreaming of results from the polling stations to the national tallying centre," constitutional lawyer Bobby Mkangi told the Star.
"This is taking us back, unfortunately. The livestreaming results is to meet the constitutional requirement for IEBC to conduct elections in a credible, transparent and verifiable manner."
"Any law that diminishes the constitution is taking us back to the pre-2010 constitution days," Mkangi said.
Despite the proposed changes, the Bill retains electronic transmission of polling station and constituency results to the National Tallying Centre. However, the commission would not be required to make the results available to the public through a live broadcast.
Elog national coordinator Mule Musau said the debate should focus on the accuracy of results declared at polling stations rather than livestreaming.
"We have agreed that as long as results from the polling station are an accurate record, the livestream is not necessary. It is an ongoing conversation. Elog is even proposing the abolition of national tallying centre," Musau said.
The Bill also proposes changes to how IEBC verifies election results by requiring the commission to confirm that transmitted results accurately reflect those tallied, verified and declared at polling stations. It also removes provisions allowing the commission to declare a presidential winner before receiving results from every constituency.
Other proposed reforms include deleting sections dealing with differences between electronically transmitted and physically delivered presidential results, removing the protection that validates results even when electronic transmission fails, making it easier to recall Members of Parliament, ending appeals in county assembly election petitions at the High Court, compelling IEBC to provide forensic images of election technology when ordered by the court, transferring candidate registration to IEBC and shifting responsibility for gender balance in party lists to political parties.