Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has called for the abolition of Bomas of Kenya as the national tallying centre for elections, arguing that Kenya should adopt a system similar to the United States of America (USA) election process.
Speaking during an interview on NTV on Monday, March 17, Omtatah criticised the role of Bomas in election tallying, insisting that results should be finalised at the constituency level rather than being processed at a central location.
He wants election results to be finalised at the constituency level, stating that the Kenyan Constitution already provides a clear process for announcing election results, and there is no need for a national tallying centre at Bomas.
Omtatah argued that Kenya should follow the U.S. election model, where there is no central tallying centre. He said that there, the presidential election results are known by November 6, but the official confirmation and endorsement take place later in January.
"We can do what America did. Bomas should function like their system—by November 6, Americans already know who won. Then, by January 6, they only formalise and endorse the results," he explained.
Omtatah further elaborated that tallying should be done at polling stations, and results should be declared at the constituency level rather than being transported to a central location.
He emphasised that each constituency should finalise its own results before they are officially declared.
"We do not want anything to do with Bomas. We want election results to be finalised at the constituency level. We should know the outcome in places like Mathare immediately, just like in the U.S., where results are announced from different locations," he stated.
The senator also referenced remarks made by S.K. Macharia on Saturday, March 15, who previously admitted to witnessing vote manipulation at Bomas saying that Kenya must move forward by fixing such issues in the electoral process.
He clarified the wording in Article 138(10) of the Kenyan Constitution, stating that the IEBC chairman's role is only to declare results, not tally them at Bomas. He also cited Article 86(2)(b) & (c), which states that tallying should be done at lower levels before results are announced.
"We do not make a finding at Bomas; we only formalise it. The chairman of the IEBC is supposed to declare results. This idea that results from polling stations must be taken to Bomas does not exist in the law," he explained.
He noted that the tallying officer at each polling station should submit results to the returning officer in each constituency, who would then announce the final tally for that constituency. He added that for county seats, there is a county-level declaration of winners.
For the presidential race, results from all 290 constituencies should be compiled to determine if a candidate has met the 50 per cent plus one threshold and secured victory in at least 24 counties. If these conditions are met, the election is valid. If not, a runoff election would be conducted.
"Once we confirm that a candidate has over 50 per cent of the votes and has won at least 24 counties, w
