UAE JOBS

24/11/2025

Why Omtatah wants the Bomas National
Tallying Centre declared unconstitutional
Senator wants court to reaffirm the finality of constituency declared results

In Summary
🔵Omtatah in court papers argues that Bomas NTC provides avenue for rigging of presidential elections through retallying and verification, leading to electoral disputes
🔵He also wants media houses to rely on the 290 constituency results to project the winner of an election

Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah now wants the High Court to declare the traditional Bomas of Kenya National Tallying Centre (NTC) for presidential elections unconstitutional.

The outspoken public interest litigant and now senator says he wants the courts to stop the “Bomas manipulation” of presidential election results as well as allow the media to project a winner of presidential elections by relying on constituency results.

Omtatah seeks, among other things, to abolish the NTC for presidential elections and stop the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) from “verifying,” “re-tallying,” or changing the results announced at the constituency level.

The senator is challenging the constitutionality of the NTC, and of Section 39 of the Elections Act and Regulation 83(2) of the Elections (General) Regulations (Legal Notice 128 of 2012).

The core argument is that the national tallying and verification of presidential election results is unconstitutional as it undermines the finality of the results already declared.

He argues that Section 39 of the Act, Regulation 83(2), and current IEBC practice contradict the Constitution, especially regarding where presidential votes should be tallied, verified, and declared as final.

“The Constitution makes constituency results final and, therefore, any tallying or verification beyond this, such as at the county or national tallying centres, is unconstitutional.”

In Constitutional Petition No. E757 of 2025, Omtatah has listed the IEBC, the Attorney General, the National Assembly, the IEBC Chairperson, and the Senate as respondents, and the Katiba Institute as an interested party.

“The Petition raises complex and novel constitutional questions concerning the interpretation of Articles 81, 86, 138, and 249 of the Constitution regarding the conduct, tallying, transmission, and declaration of presidential election results.”

It adds: “The Petition seeks to rectify a dangerous and recurring constitutional crisis that has plagued the last three presidential elections in Kenya, creating a national imperative for its expeditious resolution.”

He argues that the role of the Chairperson of the IEBC under Article 138(10), in his belief, is purely ministerial, limited to collating the final results from the constituencies and announcing the outcome.

“In short, the petitioner is asking the court to return the presidential election to the exact system the 2010 Constitution created: 290 separate constituency declarations being the final national result, with no ‘Bomas drama,’ no week-long suspense, and no opportunity for anyone in Nairobi to change what constituency returning officers have already declared in public.”

The IEBC Chairperson’s only job (Article 138(10)) is to add up the 290 constituency results (a simple arithmetic exercise) and declare who has met the threshold of 50% + 1 and 25% in 24 counties. The Chairperson has no power to verify, re-tally, alter, or reject any constituency results, and has no discretion to alter or re-verify those results.

“The current system, which centralizes the final declaration at the National Tallying Centre, has been a persistent source of electoral disputes, public confusion, and mistrust in the integrity of our presidential elections, as witnessed in the past three electoral cycles.”

Section 39 of the Elections Act and Regulation 83(2) establish a National Tallying Centre, where presidential results are sent for a second round of “verification” and “tallying.”

The petitioner argues that this creates an unnecessary and illegal layer that enables alteration, manipulation, or delay of the results already final under the Constitution.

Omtatah challenges Section 39 of the Elections Act, which introduces verification at county and national levels, on the grounds that this contradicts the constitutional requirement that verification and declaration at the constituency level are final.

The petition argues that relying solely on the IEBC’s online portal for results is insufficient.

“It contends that for true transparency, final constituency results must be immediately published on public noticeboards and made available to the media as soon as they are declared, in line with the public’s right to information (Article 35). The media should be free to disseminate constituency results as soon as they are announced.”

Although the High Court in the Maina Kiai case (2017) touched on transparency and the handling of election results, Omtatah says it did not challenge the constitutionality of the NTC, the legal powers of the IEBC Chairperson and county returning officers, or the requirement of the immediate public dissemination of constituency results, which he wants determined with finality.

18/10/2025

04/10/2025

30/09/2025

Celebrating my 4th year on Facebook. Thank you for your continuing support. I could never have made it without you. 🙏🤗🎉

19/09/2025

Your dream job in Russia

Ukraine captures Kenyans fighting for Russia in war

Prisoners of war stand in formation inside a Ukrainian detention facility where foreign fighters are held under strict supervision as part of wartime operations linked to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Photo credit: MFA Ukraine

What you need to know:
🔵A Ukrainian Embassy official said the four Kenyans are among many foreign nationals recruited by Russia to fight on the battle frontline.
🔵Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura and Foreign Affairs PS Korir Sing’oei had not responded to our inquiries by the time of publication.
🔵Ukrainian forces have captured at least four Kenyans fighting for Russia’s military in the ongoing three-year-old war.

A Ukrainian Embassy official on Thursday said that the four Kenyans are among many foreign nationals recruited by Russia to fight on the battle frontline. The four Kenyans were identified as Peter Njenga, Felix Mutahi, Martin Munene and Evans.

A video posted on Facebook in June shows Njenga, Mutahi and Munene identifying themselves among several other foreigners as they prepared to join Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura and Foreign Affairs PS Korir Sing’oei had not responded to our inquiries by the time of this article's publication.

It is still unclear how, or why, the Kenyans joined Russia’s military. But in a past visit to a prisoners-of-war camp in Kyiv, the Nation established that several Africans had been lured into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with promises of scholarships and jobs.

At the time, the Nation did not encounter any Kenyans in the camp.

The 57th Motorized Infantry Brigade—a unit of Ukraine’s ground forces—has released a video of a Kenyan who only identified himself as Evans, and who claimed that he was a tourist duped into joining Russia’s military.

The man in the video said that he is an athlete and that on the last day of the Russian visit, his host proposed a lucrative job opportunity. After promising to sort out bureaucracies like a work visa, the host returned the following day with a bunch of papers typed out in Russian, the man in the video added.

Prisoners of war camp
Evans said that he boarded a private car in the company of other Russian individuals, and that his host refused to divulge the nature of the job. The paperwork turned out to be a contract to fight for Russia.

“The host directed me where to sign and where to write my name before he left with the documents. All this time, he was not willing to inform me what kind of job he was linking me up with,” he said, adding that his phone and Kenyan passport were afterwards confiscated.

“I later found myself inside a military camp. When I asked them what I was doing inside a training camp, they informed me that I had signed for the job and I had to take it. The trainers and bosses are Russians and during the training they were speaking in Russian. It was very difficult for me to understand anything,” he said.

Evans added that he was handed a rifle and ordered to join a unit. Instead, he manoeuvred his way through the forest and surrendered to Ukrainian soldiers in Kharkiv Oblast, near Vovchansk town.

During the visit to the prisoners of war camp in Kyiv, the Nation found Africans from Togo, Ghana, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Egypt and Tunisia. The script was the same for them—after training for between one and three months, they were handed rifles and deployed to the frontline.

For some, they needed to escape the harsh realities in their home countries, and they would do it again if given a chance. For others, regret had set in, and they wished they could go back home.

The video, and confirmation by the Ukrainian Embassy official that Kenyans are among prisoners of war in Kyiv’s custody, follows the August 2023 death of Ugandan computer science student Habib Bosco Magara, who was in Russia on a scholarship. Lemekani Nathan Nyirenda, a Zambian student, was in September 2022 killed while fighting for Russia.

Their deaths raised questions—which Moscow has never answered—on whether Russia used scholarships and jobs to lure Africans into the war.

11/09/2025

31/08/2025

𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐧𝐲𝐚𝐰𝐢𝐫𝐚: 𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐟 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲'𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭

When five-year-old Margaret Karimi watched her mother leave in 2011, she was told they would one day reunite. Her mother, Catherine Nyawira, was travelling to Saudi Arabia in search of greener pastures, determined to build a better life for her children.

For years, Karimi and her sister clung to that promise. The occasional phone calls, money sent home and stories shared across borders kept hope alive. But this August, that dream was crushed. Nyawira, who had spent 15 years working in Saudi Arabia, died unexpectedly. To the family’s devastation, she was buried in the Gulf before her body could be repatriated.

Now, her family in Runyenjes, Karuruma village, Embu County, is pleading with the Kenyan and Saudi authorities to intervene, insisting they were denied the dignity of laying their loved one to rest.

Follow Kenyan Politics TODAY

“She passed away on August 1. We were told that to repatriate the body, we needed to raise Sh450,000 and given 25 days to do so,” said her father, Damiano Nyaga.

The family began fundraising in earnest, hopeful that once the amount was secured, they would receive Nyawira’s body at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. But on August 16, barely two weeks later, they received a devastating call: Nyawira had already been buried in Saudi Arabia. “This was done without our consent. Why, when the 25 days had not lapsed? Nyawira had two children waiting for a mother they had not seen in 15 years. We are pleading with the government to help us. We want to bury our daughter at home,” Nyaga said.

Nyawira’s mother, Margaret Nyaga, said the pain was made worse by being denied a final farewell.

The family had travelled to Nairobi on Thursday in anticipation of receiving the body. Back at home in Embu, mourners had gathered, waiting to accord Nyawira her final rites.

“How will I even accept that my daughter is dead when I cannot see her remains. It is painful and heartbreaking. Please bring my child to me. That is the only way I can find peace, and try to forget about all this,” she said.

Nyawira’s sister, Josephine Wanjeru, recounted their constant communication over the years.

26/08/2025

20/08/2025

20/11/2024

With Jobs Saudia – I'm on a streak! I've been a top fan for 5 months in a row. 🎉