Kibaki leads ministers in 'Yes' win as IIEC starts releasing official results

The official final results for the referendum vote started coming in on Thursday morning, with President Kibaki leading ministers in delivering the 'Yes' vote.

As of 9:20am, results from 42 out the 210 constituencies had been announced by the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, with the official tally standing at 1, 406,576 for Yes and 632,626n for the No side.

Those who rallied their constituents to sing the President’s ‘Green’ anthem were Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Environment Minister John Michuki, Water Minister Charity Ngilu, Trade Minister Amos Kimunya and Gender and Children Minister Esther Murugi.

Ms Ngilu resisted the ‘No’ tide that had swept Ukambani and delivered all the votes in her Kitui Central constituency to the ‘Green’ pot. She’ll be a proud woman knowing that many of her constituents listened to her. The ‘YES’ had 19,416, ‘NO’ 16,201, votes valid 35,617, and rejected votes were 1,069.

However, Housing assistant minister Margaret Wanjiru failed to woo her Starehe constituents to the ‘Red brigade’. In Starehe YES got 68,815, while the NO camp got 25,529 votes. 4,612 votes were rejected. The valid votes cast were 94,344.

The other results as released are from Gideon Ndambuki’s Kaiti constituency, Maina Kamau’s Kandara, Elias Mbau’s Maragua, Jamleck Kamau’s Kigumo, David Njuguna’s Lari and Luka Kigen’s Rongai.

‘YES’ in Kaiti got 13, 506 and the ‘NO’ 15, 465, while 384 votes were rejected. In Kandara, YES got 48,630, NO had 6,278, while 1,728 votes were rejected. In Maragua YES had 41,025, NO 6,319, while 1,409 were rejected.

Kigumo constituency had 38,060 voters vote ‘YES’, ‘NO’ 5,765, and 923 votes were rejected. Lari constituency saw YES get 34,032, NO 7,672, while 1, 501 were spoilt.

Gatundu South, Mr Kenyatta’s constituency, saw YES 32,422, NO 10,209, rejected votes were 541. Rongai YES 24,182, NO 20, 391 rejected 1,878 valid votes 44,178. Mr Michuki’s Kangema saw YES reap 26,924, NO 2,589, rejected votes were 429.

Peter Mwathi’s Limuru ‘YES’ 39,127, NO 8,392, rejected votes were 1,392. Mr Victor Munyaka’s constituency went ‘Red’ just like he wanted with YES getting 22,069, against NO’s 27,654. Rejected votes 1,627.

Transport assistant minister Harun Mwau delivered his Kilome constituency to the ‘Red brigade’ with 12,316 votes against YES’s 9,572. Rejected votes were 494. Mr Kimunya’s Kipipiri had YES at 25,976, NO at 374, and rejected votes at 531.

The 15 constituencies enter Kenya’s history books as the first ones to tell the country –officially, that is—the people’s verdict on Wednesday’s constitution referendum.

The first results opened the day –for the Interim Independent Electoral Commission—and the gate—for the 210 constituencies—after what seemed like a static night, at least as far as the vote count for the provisional referendum results was concerned.

The simultaneous official release of the results came as good news to the dozens of journalists and the tens of observers who braved the chilly night and a very cold morning awaiting the national vote count at the Bomas of Kenya.

The agony of the wait was experienced mostly between 2am and 5am when only 37 polling stations delivered results to the IIEC server via the special mobile phones given to returning officers.

Looked at against the backdrop of the flood of results –14,100 that had hit the big screen display within just six hours after the close of the vote—then one can understand the mounting anxiety at the delay. Not just because those present wanted to confirm the winner, but because they also wanted to go sleep.

However, IIEC commissioner Davies Chirchir had warned that the flood of results would end and from then on, the results were expected to hit the IIEC server at a much slower pace.

The national agents who had braved the cold night in a quiet deserted auditorium reaped the fruits of their patience, when they were finally –at 5.30am—called to the IIEC boardroom to vet the results that had been brought in from the two constituencies.

They retreated to the room for one hour and when they came out they had unanimously agreed that the returning officers had done a good job in safeguarding the verdict of Kenyans as exhibited in Wednesday’s quiet and expectant vote.

The total number of valid votes cast when the official results of the 42 constituencies came up had ‘YES’ in the lead with 4,170,813 and ‘NO’ trailing at 2, 068,687.

As the sun rises and glides over the city’s skies, taking with it the chilly night at Bomas, so will the IIEC shake off the nigh-armtwisting by the ‘No’ camp that dogged the ballot night and begin announcing the official results as returning officers formally file the returns.

By 6.40am, 14,740 polling stations had reported their results to the national tallying centre –although legally, this is just preliminary, until the official forms were certified for it to become official. There still are another 13,000 polling stations that were yet to file their findings.

The tally so far