Kenyan Voters Approved New Constitution

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen …

Fellow Kenyans, this is the moment we have all been waiting for. As you are aware, the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) was established under s. 41 of the Constitution of Kenya as part of the wider reforms to be undertaken under Agenda 4 of the Kenya National Accord and Reconciliation Act.
IIEC was set up with 8 Commissioners with the aim of reforming the electoral process and restore people’s confidence in the country’s electoral system. It was gazetted on May 8th, 2009 to work for 24 months or 3 months after a new constitution comes into effect, whichever is earlier.

REFERENDUM RESULTS

IIEC mandate
Section 41A of the Constitution outlines the IIEC’s mandate. It includes
•Reform of the electoral process and the management of elections in order to institutionalize free and fair elections;
•Fresh registration of voters and the creation of a new voters’ register;
•Development of a modern system for collection, collation, transmission, and tallying of electoral data; and
•Conducting of the referendum for the new constitution.

The Constitution of Kenya Review Act, 2008 further mandates the Commission to organize, conduct and supervise referenda. It also provides for the procedure of conducting a referendum. The Act further makes provision for Gazettement of Referendum Guidelines. In this respect, the Commission did gazette the Constitution of Kenya Review (Referendum) Regulations, 2010 on 10th May 2010.
We all know that the road to reforms has been long and windy. The latest attempt to getting Kenya a new constitution failed in the 2005 referendum. However, efforts on this front were renewed when the Attorney General published the Proposed Constitution and the Commission, as mandated by law, drafted and gazetted the Referendum Question. It further went ahead to set down the 4th of August 2010 as the date when Kenyans would vote in support or against the Proposed New Constitution.
The voting on the Proposed Constitution, which has now been concluded, has received results from 207 constituencies. The remaining three which shall be received tomorrow (3) have an aggregate total of 97,442.
Section 35(2) of the Constitution of Kenya Review (Referendum) Regulations, 2010, empowers the Chairman to declare the results of the referendum before all the constituencies have delivered their results, if in his opinion the results that have not been received will not make a difference to the final results of the referendum.

As a Commission, we wish to commend the Kenyan people for coming out in large numbers to register and to vote in this important national exercise. Indeed this was demonstrated by the long queues witnessed at the polling stations at the start of the exercise.
I wish to thank all Kenyans for their resolve to exercise their democratic right to determine the future of their country peacefully while respecting the right of those with divergent views.
We appreciate Kenyans’ enthusiasm to the process, especially in embracing the newly piloted provisional electronic results transmission. As with any other new technology, it was not wrought without challenges.
We recognize the support of other Agenda 4 Commissions, development partners, and other stakeholders and in particular, single out the “YES” and “NO” Referendum Committees. In addition, we wish to thank the media who have walked with us throughout the reform process and went an extra mile in educating the electorate and the public.
Finally, allow me to thank my fellow Commissioners, the Secretariat and the entire IIEC staff for their dedication and hard work which has made the referendum a success.
We are determined and committed to serve Kenyans.

We cherish our values of transparency, independency, efficiency, professionalism, integrity and teamwork.
It is now my humble and esteemed duty to declare the referendum results to the public.
The law provides that the Commission shall announce the results received from all constituencies within two days of the referendum vote.
Pursuant to the Constitution of Kenya Review Act, 2008 and the Referendum Regulations, 2010, I do declare that the Proposed New Constitution is hereby ratified.

Thank you ….