NAIROBI — Presidential aspirant Eliud Owalo has called for Kenya to retain and strengthen the live streaming of election results, saying greater transparency is essential to protecting public confidence in the electoral process ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Owalo argues that Kenyans should be able to follow the announcement of results at polling-station level in real time, alongside other safeguards including electronic transmission, access to electoral forms, physical tallying, independent observation and media coverage.
His position comes as debate continues over how Kenya should manage technology, transparency and verification in the transmission and tallying of election results.
Owalo says any changes to electoral laws should be judged against a fundamental question: whether they strengthen public trust or create additional doubt around the credibility of elections.
According to him, restricting access to information during elections risks creating an information vacuum that can fuel suspicion, misinformation and political tension.
“Transparency should never be seen as a burden. It is a democratic duty,” Owalo said.
Rather than scaling back livestreaming, he wants the systems supporting it strengthened through better verification procedures, stronger cybersecurity, protected transmission infrastructure, proper preservation of electoral records and credible audits.
Owalo maintains that transparency and the integrity of official results are not competing objectives.
He argues that Kenya can protect the authenticity of election results while allowing citizens, candidates, political parties, observers and the media to monitor critical stages of the process.
The bigger 2027 question
For Owalo, the debate over livestreaming is ultimately part of a broader question about public confidence in elections.
He says Kenya should invest in technology and safeguards that make the electoral process easier to observe and independently verify rather than introduce measures that could leave voters with unanswered questions.
“What our country needs is not less openness, but greater confidence in how our elections are conducted,” he said.
Owalo's call places electoral transparency firmly among the issues likely to shape political debate ahead of the 2027 presidential and general elections.
He says the priority should be to protect the vote, strengthen verification and ensure that Kenyans can have confidence in both the electoral process and the final result.
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Category: Politics · Related Topic: 2027 Elections
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