Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has filed a fresh petition seeking to overturn the long-standing practice of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) operating a National Tallying Centre with powers to verify, alter, or re-tally presidential election results. He argues that the Commission has consistently acted outside the Constitution by assuming a role that does not exist in the electoral framework.
In his court papers, Omtatah insists that the Constitution clearly outlines a simple, transparent, and final process under Articles 86 and 138: votes are counted at polling stations, collated at the constituency, and declared by constituency returning officers whose results, he says, are intended to be final. According to him, this design leaves no constitutional room for additional verification at a national level.
He faults Section 39 of the Elections Act, which introduced national-level verification, saying it contradicts the Constitution and has opened the door to confusion, duplication, and potential manipulation. He argues that Parliament and the IEBC unlawfully expanded the Commission’s powers beyond what the Constitution permits by creating a National Tallying Centre that plays a role the Constitution never envisaged.
Omtatah also highlights that the practice has been at the centre of major disputes in the 2013, 2017, and 2022 presidential elections, further proving, in his view, that the national verification process is unconstitutional and destabilizing.
The petition goes further to accuse the IEBC Chairperson of exercising powers the law does not grant, particularly the ability to declare presidential results without receiving all constituency results an act Omtatah says reinforces the fact that constituency-level results are final and should not be subjected to national scrutiny.
He also faults the Attorney General for failing to properly advise the government on the constitutional breaches, and accuses Parliament of passing legislation that undermines the integrity and safeguards embedded in the Constitution’s electoral framework.
Omtatah now wants the High Court to interpret the constitutionality of Section 39 of the Elections Act and determine whether the IEBC’s conduct at the National Tallying Centre violates the constitutional scheme governing presidential elections.
