A recent report by TIFA has revealed that 50 per cent of Kenyans have 'no confidence at all' in the integrity of the upcoming 2027 general elections.
According to the report, which was released on Wednesday, May 5, the Kenyans believe that the upcoming general polls will mainly be compromised by factors such as political interference, graft, and failures of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
TIFA has further noted that 18 per cent of other Kenyans believe that other factors, such as insecurity, refusal of the president and other candidates to accept defeat, technological failures, a history of rigging, and Insufficient time to prepare for the elections, will sabotage the integrity of the upcoming elections
"Among the 50 per cent of Kenyans who have no confidence in the next election’s integrity, the most commonly expressed concerns are about political interference, graft, and failures of the IEBC (30 per cent, 29 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively), but it is clear that these three categories are somewhat overlapping as they all relate to the integrity of the official results," it stated.
On the flip side, 20 per cent of Kenyans who participated in the survey said that they are 'very confident' that the next general elections will have the highest level of integrity, while 21 per cent said that they were ' somewhat confident', and 9 per cent were 'not sure'.
The survey, which was conducted between 2nd and 6th May, involved 2,024 respondents from the Central Rift, Coast, Lower Eastern, Mt Kenya, Nairobi, Northern, Nyanza, South Rift, and Western regions.
The report has further pointed out that 64 per cent of those who participated in the survey believed that none of the three past elections, 2022, 2017, and 2013, were valid.
According to TIFA, Nyanza residents (48 per cent) were leading the race in believing that none of the last three presidential elections were valid, and only 16 per cent of the participants in the region said all three were legitimate.
On the other hand, residents from the Mount Kenya region and the Central Rift showed relatively higher levels of trust in the validity of the past three elections, with 39 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively.
"Conversely, twice as many of those who have no such confidence about the next elections believe that none of the last three official presidential results were true compared to those who believe that they all were valid (64 per cent vs 32 per cent)," the report stated.
Additionally, the report further stated that 68 per cent of the Kenyans were not aware that the IEBC had missed a constitutional calendar timelimit due to vacancies in the commission in preparation for the upcoming general elections.
"Two-thirds of Kenyans were unable to identify the main (and perhaps only) constitutional timelimit in terms of preparation for the next election (due to the vacancies in the IEBC: the review of constituency timelines. This process should have been completed in February 2024," it stated.
