(Bloomberg) -- Kenyan media tallies of ballots from Tuesday's presidential elections showed differing provisional counts, with the electoral authority yet to announce any official results.
The Nairobi-based Nation Media Group put former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the lead with 51% of the vote, compared with 48.4% for Deputy President William Ruto on Thursday morning. Rival outlet Royal Media Services, which owns Citizen Television, had Odinga with 49.5% against 49.1% for Ruto, having shown Ruto leading earlier on Thursday. Both publications have collated more than 11 million votes. The turnout was estimated at about 65% of the 22.1 million registered voters.
Kenyan publications are using forms digitally submitted by polling stations to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to compile their tallies. The IEBC has said it won't publish any results until it has verified the original forms.
The presidential candidates must secure more than half the valid votes cast and at least a quarter of the ballots in half of Kenya's 47 counties to be declared the winner. If no candidate meets that threshold, a fresh election must be held within 30 days.
Differing Media Tallies Shouldn't Cause Panic: Vote Chief (12:26 p.m.)
IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati said tallies across media outlets have varied, which “may be so because each media house is accessing the public portal of the result forms at different times and each is using its own criteria.”
“We hope at the end of tallying they will be harmonized and similar because the results are from the same source,” Chebukati said at a briefing. “So there should be no panic.” The final announcement and declaration of the presidential result will be done by the national returning officer, he said.
Kenyan Bond Yields Fall for Fifth Day (11:37 a.m.)
Kenya's $2 billion 2024 Eurobonds extended gains for a sixth straight day as the peaceful conduct of the election bolstered investor confidence. The yield dropped 66 basis points to 12.28% -- a two-month low. It jumped to a record of more than 22% in mid-July amid an International Monetary Fund program review and as investors weighed a potential debt restructuring, which was an election issue. Stocks rose for a third day, with the FTSE-NSE 25 Index gaining as much as 4.5% in the capital Nairobi.
Kenyan Vote Management has Improved: Observers (11 a.m.)
An observer mission from the East African Community, a regional bloc, recommended that communications around the elections be improved. It noted that there were problems associated with social media, particularly relating to disinformation, misinformation and hate speech, during various stages of the process.
“The mission takes note of the remarkable improvements made by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission with regards to transparency, preparation and management of the 2022 elections,” former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who led the delegation, told reporters in Nairobi. “However, much more needs to be done for better outcomes in future.”
Kenyan Fiscal Challenges a Key Concern: RenCap (00:01 a.m.)
Renaissance Capital Africa Economist Yvonne Mhango discusses the fiscal challenges and inflation in Kenya and what the next leader needs to target to recover the economy.
Voter-Turnout Drop May Concern Ruto: Oxford (6:01 p.m.)
The decline in voter turnout reported by the IEBC may concern Ruto the most, Oxford Economics said in a research note.
“The success of his presidential bid will be determined, in large part, by his campaign's ability to turn out young and first-time voters,” it said. “Low voter registration among the youth already suggested that his anti-establishment messaging was struggling to gain traction among an increasingly disillusioned electorate.”
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