Uchaguzi 2022: SitRoom Report #4

This situation room report is based on data from https://uchaguzi.or.ke as of 10th August 2022, 23:59h. Uchaguzi situation room reports will be shared regularly during election week. 

Citizen tabulation and results 

With the focus shifting from voting to tallying and announcing results, citizens are taking to social media to declare ‘final official results’ of their preferred candidates.

This is mainly propagated in the presidential race. 

Reaction:

• Citizens continue to post peace messages, calling for those who did not succeed to acknowledge defeat gracefully.
• IEBC and Twitter are decisively countering this by encouraging people not to post informal results and issuing warnings under such tweets, respectively.  

Media tabulation and results

The media is providing round-the-clock tallying of the presidential vote with each house computing form 34As in their predetermined order (counting from different areas at different times), resulting in varied projected outcomes. Both citizen declarations and media results are causing brewing tension among voters.

Reaction:

• Media Council of Kenya Executive Director David Omwoyo said that in consultation with Media Owners and Editors, MCK is trying to find an urgent solution to ensure Kenyans receive synchronised results.  
• IEBC is providing official data on various elections facets. E.g., they announced that  99.47% of forms 34A have been reported - i.e. 45,982 of 46,229. Additionally, 14,164,561 citizens voted in the August 9 elections, translating to 64% of total registered voters. 

Security Issues

In comparing security issues reported on the Uchaguzi platform on election day(9th) and after(10th), we noticed an increase in reports of violent attacks, riots, vandalism and physical attacks on property, demonstrations, and rumors, as seen below. 

Security issues reported on Uchaguzi on 9th August 2022

Security issues reported on Uchaguzi on 10th August, 2022

Tom Mboya University is the Homa Bay County tallying centre, and supporters have been causing chaos outside with opposing voters at Suna West tallying centre clashing.  Such confrontations escalate to suspension of tallying, as was the case at  Bobasi Constituency Kisii County, due to commotion raised.

Reaction: The police have been trying to quell such protests, as in Homa Bay, where they engaged protesting factions. 

Positive Events

• Of noteworthy mention is the kick-off of voting in Eldas constituency, halted due to a gunfire incident where election officials remained trapped as they prepared to dispatch the ballot materials to polling stations. 
• The overall sentiment from messages sent through SMS is that voting went well, and everything is fine. 
• Internet connectivity testing through OONI Probe indicates that access remains stable for communication, e-commerce, circumvention platforms, health portals among others.

Have any feedback or questions on this SitRoom report? Share with us through our social media platforms. But also:

Share your Uchaguzi reports with us!

For those in Kenya, please share any concerns you notice via the following channels:-

1. Toll-free SMS: 23102 
2. USSD: *603#
3. Whatsapp: +254 790 573949 

or visit https://uchaguzi.or.ke to submit a report via web.