The shenanigans surrounding presidential elections in this part of the world are not just limited to politicians and election officials. It is not lost on observers that following the repeat presidential election, media owners and senior managers were more than happy to collaborate with the state in silencing journalists who dared to air the mock swearing-in of Raila Odinga as the People’s President in January 2018. As the 2022 election approaches, many of the problems that led to the annulment of the election in 2017 persist. As Mathenge has noted in a subsequent Twitter thread, the limitations that media houses have in collecting polling station results are still evident. If media enterprises got together to establish a joint, independent tallying centre, they probably could pull together the resources and support to cover the release of election results from polling stations in real time and to call the election.

Source: The Star May 22, 2021 02:03 UTC