The need to establish whether a presidential candidate has secured the constitutional threshold to win an election has renewed debate over the role of Kenya’s national tallying centre, with National Assembly Deputy Speaker Gladys Boss Shollei defending its retention ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Wednesday, Shollei said Bomas of Kenya provides a central point for aggregating presidential results from constituencies to determine whether a candidate has obtained more than half of the valid votes cast and at least 25 per cent of the votes in at least 24 counties.
“Bomas is not announcing results. It’s aggregating for the purposes of the 50 plus one and the 25 per cent in 24 counties,” she said.
She argued that the national tallying centre has no authority to change results declared at polling stations or constituency tallying centres, but instead consolidates the figures to establish the overall presidential outcome.
“Bomas has no power to change the results from the polling station or from the constituency tallying centres. They can only announce them,” Shollei said.
She added that the national tallying centre remained necessary because the constitutional threshold for winning the presidency could not be established by examining individual constituencies in isolation.
“You have to bring it. You have to aggregate it at some place,” she said.
Shollei also defended the transmission and live-streaming of election results, saying the measures were introduced following concerns about transparency after the disputed 2007 presidential election and the violence that followed.
She said the reforms were intended to ensure Kenyans could follow the counting process instead of being left in the dark until the final results were announced.
“As you count, let them count with you, and let them see, so that there are no surprises at the end, so they are not suspicious,” she said.
Her remarks come amid continued calls by opposition leaders and election reform groups for the scrapping of the national tallying centre ahead of the 2027 polls.
The People’s Coalition on Electoral Reforms, led by former Chief Justice David Maraga, had argued that presidential results declared at polling stations and constituency tallying centres should not be retallied or altered at a central venue.
“There shall be no tallying centre at Bomas or elsewhere.
The IEBC commissioners shall not alter or re-tally the results announced at the constituency level,” the coalition said, calling for the abolition of the centre.
The coalition maintained that the electoral process should instead rely on transparent, decentralised results management, with constituency figures made accessible to candidates, political parties, the media and the public.