Some issues emerged during the scrutiny of ballot boxes from 15 polling stations from various parts of the country.
The exercise commenced on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, following a Supreme Court order requiring a vote recount for 15 polling stations.
45 ballot boxes from the 15 polling stations were delivered at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi on Wednesday for the exercise to commence as directed by the apex court.
The exercise was undertaken in the presence of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officials, agents of Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga, Kenya Kwanza Alliance leader William Ruto and activists.
Issues noticed
The scrutiny of the first batch of ballot boxes and recounting of votes did not have major discrepancies. The votes cast in favour of each presidential candidate were largely tallied.
Only nine out of 45 ballot boxes had been opened, scrutinised and votes recounted as of Thursday morning.
The nine boxes were from Majengo and Mvita primary schools, in Mvita Constituency in Mombasa County.
The numbers matched what was in Form 34A and declaration result forms held by IEBC in the ballot boxes.
The issue that emerged from the nine boxes include; failure to fill Form 34A, failure to seal rejected ballot papers, lack of stamps and missing physical voters’ registers.
The scrutiny also showed that the ballot box for Stream 1 of Majengo polling station in Mvita had no Form 34A while for Stream 2, Form 34A was blank and not stamped.
Furthermore, the ballot box had two Forms 34A in Stream 5 of Mvita Primary School. One was signed by the presiding officer, the deputy presiding officer and agents of political parties. The other Form 34A was unsigned.
Both Forms showed that Raila had 122 votes while Ruto had 99 votes. George Wajackoyah had two votes and Waihiga Mwaure had none.
In Stream 4, the governor’s declaration result form was found in the presidential election materials.
The scrutiny of the remaining 36 ballot boxes continues today.
