Reuters Explains Why Kenyans Cannot Access Its Election Results

A collage image of Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga (left) and Deputy President William Ruto (right).
A collage image of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga while on the campaign trail in Nakuru County in July 2022(left) and President William Ruto ar a rally in Bungoma County in June 2022(right).
PCS
Raila Odinga

London-based news outlet, Reuters, has explained why Kenyans can no longer access presidential results tallies on its feed.

In a statement dated Saturday, August 13, the global news outlet noted that the tallies could not be accessed on the Google Search engine since its team was involved in the tedious work of compiling the data and tabulating it.

Reuters added that it was still tallying results as announced by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and would regularly issue updates on its news feed.

Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson Wafula Chebukati addressing the media at Bomas of Kenya
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairperson Wafula Chebukati addressing the media at Bomas of Kenya
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"We are aware that the Reuters tally of results from the Kenya presidential election no longer appears on Google searches.

"Our tally is based on preliminary constituency-level forms posted on the election Commission website and collated by our data team outside the country," read Reuters statement in part.

Further, the news outlet clarified that its tallies were verified, allaying concerns of any bias towards any of the four presidential candidates.

"We continue to report on the Kenya election – including providing updates on the Commission’s preliminary and final voting data - in an independent and unbiased way."

Reuters' statement came after social media users raised concerns over the disappearance of the tallies that were accessible on the global search engine - Google.

The disappearance of the tallies saw a section of social media users allege that the media organisation was hacked after an initial human error on the results it had displayed.

"Some incorrect data briefly appeared in our live feed to Google of results from the Kenya election as a result of human error in data entry.

"This was corrected within 14 minutes, as soon as we became aware of it. We apologise for the mistake and have taken steps to address it," Reuters stated.

Reuters is one of the media houses that have been updating their tallies on their platforms based on Forms 34A and 34B downloaded from IEBC portal.

A screenshot of the Reuters presidential tally showing Raila Odinga ahead with 44 million votes.
A screenshot of the Reuters presidential tally showing Raila Odinga ahead with 44 million votes.
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