Livestreaming of election results could be scrapped if proposals in a new bill for consideration by Parliament are carried to the end.

A proposed Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, deletes the provision in the Elections Act that requires IEBC to establish a mechanism for livestreaming results as they are announced at polling stations. This means the live results displayed by IEBC at the National Tallying Centre may not be there in 2027.

The media has often relied on those statistics to inform the public. The livestreaming is part of transparency safeguard that was put in place to secure the credibility of presidential elections after the 2007 poll chaos.

The change is contained in Section 19 of the Bill, which proposes to amend Section 39 of the Elections Act.

The Bill specifically states that Section 39 will be amended ‘by deleting subsection (1G)’.

Under the existing Section 39(1G), IEBC is required to establish a mechanism for the ‘livestreaming of results as announced at polling stations’.

The law further provides that the streamed results are ‘for purposes of public information only’. This means Kenyans will no longer have an express statutory guarantee that they can watch election results being announced at polling stations in real time. The Star