Why you are seeing different presidential election results across TV stations

There have been growing concerns raised by members of the public pertaining to the transmission of presidential results across different TV stations, with some suggesting that the press is not keying in the correct tally results.

The confusion stems largely from the fact that this is the first time in Kenya's history that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has permitted media houses, politicians, members of the public and  other interested parties to independently keep track of the August General Election by sourcing data from the electoral body.

This has seen multiple media houses set up their own tallying centres to total the results but many are displaying varying outcomes much to the dismay of Kenyans who are now conflicted about which TV station to switch to.

Citizen Digital has since established a number of factors that have led to the airing of dissimilar presidential results.

These include manpower deployed, the time taken to process data from IEBC, randomness of how IEBC uploads data on its platform and how media houses choose to download and tally the said data.

Owing to IEBC's unpredictability in uploading the results on its platform and the randomness media houses use to download the said data, without taking into account manpower and speed of processing the said data, the results will be different on most occasions.

Media Council of Kenya (MCK) CEO David Omwoyo has since sought to allay the fears raised by members of the public.

Despite ceding that the concerns are valid and warranted, Mr. Omwoyo highlighted that it is only natural for different TV stations to display contrasting results since the sequencing of votes can vary depending on how the said stations receive results from different parts of the country.

"The Council confirms that the results being projected are all from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) though the sequencing by different media houses is from different voting areas," said Omwoyo in a statement on Wednesday.

Mr. Omwoyo added that MCK is currently exploring ways to ensure that all TV stations announce the same results simultaneously.

"The Media Council of Kenya is in consultation with Media Owners and Editors to find an urgent solution to this to ensure Kenyans receive synchronised results. Media houses have previously executed joint production with remarkable success on such matters of national interest," he said.

He likewise reminded Kenyans that official presidential election results will only be announced by IEBC once tallying is concluded.