Justice Gregory Mutai dismissed a petition filed by Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah and other challengers, confirming the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission’s authority to tally and verify presidential results at the national level.

The judge clarified that the Constitution and electoral statutes permit the IEBC to aggregate constituency results before announcing the final presidential outcome, but the process cannot be used to modify figures already certified by constituency returning officers.

Mutai emphasized that national verification is limited to checking that totals match the certified constituency figures, not to add, subtract, multiply, divide, cancel or otherwise revise any individual constituency numbers.

The ruling also confirmed that presidential results declared and certified at constituency level remain final unless challenged before an election court.

Legal basis and petition arguments

Petitioners challenged Section 39 of the Elections Act and Regulation 83(2), arguing that constituency tallying should be the ultimate verification stage and that a national tally created an unnecessary second layer.

The IEBC defended the national tally as a statutory requirement to aggregate constituency results and to determine whether a presidential candidate meets the constitutional vote threshold.

Procedural safeguards for the 2027 election

The court directed the IEBC to rely on certified Forms 34A and 34B, or their successors, when compiling national totals and to conduct verification collectively among all commissioners with access to the underlying data.

Candidates’ agents and election observers must be granted real‑time access to the data used in verification, and any discrepancies between electronic and physical records must be documented, explained and made public before the final presidential result is declared.