Bomas of Kenya : Theatre of political controversy every election cycle

When former IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati was whisked to safety after chaos erupted at Bomas of Kenya before presidential results were announced.[Standard]

For decades, the Bomas of Kenya has stood as the theatre of Kenyan democracy, characterised by high-stakes political drama.

While originally founded to be a cultural centre meant to showcase the country’s heritage, the venue finds itself at the chaotic epicentre of Kenya’s Presidential election tallies every five years, ever since it was selected as the most preferable national tallying centre for the Presidential elections by the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Previously, tallying used to take place at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, including the controversial counting of votes that led to President Mwai Kibaki being declared the winner by the then Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) in 2007.

From the highly contested 2013 elections that pitted former President Uhuru Kenyatta and the late Raila Odinga, to the chaotic altercations in 2022 that saw William Ruto crowned President, the Bomas of Kenya has played host to moments that have not only pushed the country to the brink but also altered the course of history.

And with a resurgent push by the opposition to scrap the need for a national tallying centre ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Bomas of Kenya now risks being relegated to its original status of being just a tourist attraction. 

But even as the country awaits a decision by the courts on the same, we look at some of the definitive moments that have played out at Bomas.

Former IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati at the National Tallying center, Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Most memorable were the ugly scenes witnessed during the declaration of President William Ruto as the president-elect during the 2022 general elections, shortly after Azimio la Umoja disputed the results.

Drama ensued on August 15, 2022, after IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati, who had gone incommunicado for hours, made his way to the auditorium to declare the winner of the fiercely contested election.

Azimio presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga’s chief agent, Saitabao Kanchory, joined by other Azimio supporters, however, surrounded the chairman, asking him not to declare the disputed results.

But in no time, chaos erupted, leading to the destruction of the podium set up for the occasion: The microphone reserved for Chebukati was dismantled as the lectern seats were thrown to the centre of the auditorium floor. General Service Unit officers then swung into action and evacuated Chebukati and the other IEBC officials who had joined him to announce the results.

The opposing crowds present would also descend on each other with blows as Narok Senator-elect Ledama Olekina, Kanchory, and Nyakach MP-elect Aduma Owuor, who led the protests, were accosted by Kenya Kwanza affiliates before they were saved by the police. This was after Olekina had unsuccessfully tried to grab the microphone to pass an announcement to no success.

All the while, the choir continued to sing as blows, batons and kicks reigned. But the controversy didn’t end there. Four IEBC commissioners, led by then Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera, dissociated themselves from the final tallying stage of the presidential results at the Bomas of Kenya, citing opaqueness.

Addressing the media from Serena Hotel, IEBC vice Chairperson Cherera flanked by Francis Wanderi, Justus Nyang'aya and Irene Masit, observed that the IEBC had done a good job but there were divisions during the final phase of the tallying process.

"The four of us are here and not at Bomas of Kenya where results will be announced because of the opaque nature of this phase has been handled," Cherera said.

This left chairperson Wafula Chebukati and Commissioners Boya Molu and Abdi Guliye in the dark, but ultimately, the trio declared UDA’s Ruto as President-elect after garnering 7,176,141 votes, beating his rival Azimio la Umoja One Kenya flagbearer Raila Odinga, who had 6,942,930 votes.

Five years prior, Bomas of Kenya also acted as a political pressure cooker during the announcement of the 2017 presidential elections. So much so that developments at the venue nearly scuttled the announcement of poll results. The transmission of presidential election results was marred by systemic failures, hacking allegations, and political standoffs.

Partly, a crisis erupted after the failure of the electronic transmission system leading to IEBC not to electronically stream the Forms 34A and 34B simultaneously with the texted numbers. This meant that the numbers displayed on the screens grew without the corresponding physical proof, making the process non-verifiable.

This led to the opposition alleging that the results had been hacked and that there were system breaches. Led by Raila Odinga, the opposition claimed that the IEBC IT infrastructure had been hacked using the credentials of Chris Msando, the IEBC's head of IT, who had been murdered days before the election.

The accusations by the opposition ushered in deep mistrust at the tallying centre and paralysed trust. But despite protests from opposition agents inside Bomas, regarding the unverified votes, IEBC chairperson Chebukati proceeded to announce the final presidential winner without receiving all the scanned constituency forms.  Uhuru was announced the winner with 8,223,369 votes against Raila’s 6,822,812.

But fast forward, the Supreme Court nullified the August 2017 poll results and ordered for a fresh election. The then Chief Justice David Maraga cited opaqueness and a lack of adherence to the Constitution by IEBC as reasons for the nullification.

In the rerun, Uhuru garnered 7,483,895 votes, representing 98.26 percent of the votes cast.

National Super Alliance (NASA) candidate Odinga garnered only 0.96 percent of the vote despite his boycott of the election.

Then there was the year 2013 where drama and sabotage tactics took centre stage at Bomas. This time, the contest was between Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee (TNA) and Raila Odinga’s CORD.

Trouble began after the technology crashed early in the tallying process. This forced the IEBC- led by Isaac Hassan at the time- to pivot to a manual verification process, requiring all 290 constituency returning officers to physically deliver their Form 34s to Bomas. To ensure transparency, the IEBC invited chief agents from the two main coalitions into a dedicated boardroom at Bomas to cross-check the physical forms against their own records before the official announcement.

But instead of cooperating, the agents intentionally delayed the process: They introduced their own parallel rules, constantly disputed minor details, and created bottlenecks to prolong the verification exercise.

Jubilee agent Davis Chirchir (a former interim electoral commissioner) attempted to introduce his own form adjustments, while on the evening of March 9, CORD leaders, led by Anyang' Nyong'o, delivered a formal letter demanding an immediate audit of 100 constituencies. They claimed that Raila Odinga’s votes had been intentionally suppressed while Uhuru Kenyatta’s tallies were inflated.

Notably, the primary motive behind the agents' delay tactics was the strict seven-day constitutional deadline. By law, the IEBC had exactly seven days from the election date (March 4, 2013) to declare a winner. If the deadline passed without an official declaration, the entire election would automatically become null and void. The agents attempted to run out this clock, which would have triggered an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

Issack Hassan and his commissioners, however, caught wind of the plan by the agents and revoked the agents' access to the verification forms, firmly stating that the commission would no longer tolerate calculated delays.

Eventually, IEBC proceeded to declare Uhuru as the President-elect on March 9, 2013, just within the legally mandated window. He garnered 6,173,433 votes against Raila’s 5,340,546.