- President William Ruto addressed the livestreaming controversy during a Sunday church service in Kitui County on October 25
- Reports that parliament stripped a key election law provision sparked widespread public outrage across social media platforms
- The National Assembly maintained it deleted the disputed clause entirely, leaving the original livestreaming obligation in place
Nancy Odindo is a Current Affairs Editor at TUKO.co.ke, covering political and world news. Odindo has over six years of journalism experience and joined TUKO.co.ke in 2023.
President William Ruto has dismissed as "propaganda" and "fake news" widespread claims that parliament voted to ban the livestreaming of election results, insisting the reports are being deliberately spread by politically motivated actors seeking to mislead Kenyan youth.
Source: Facebook
Ruto made the remarks during a Sunday service at Africa Inland Church (AIC) Kasina in Mwingi Constituency, Kitui county, on October 25, 2026.
"They want to start to create another propaganda around the election laws that livestreaming has been banned. Nonsense," Ruto said, directing his criticism at unnamed leaders whom he accused of exploiting young Kenyans for selfish political ends. "Why would anybody want to stop livestreaming of results? Results is a right of Kenyans."
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Ruto drew a parallel with the 2024 Finance Bill debate, arguing that misinformation had fuelled unnecessary public fury at that time too.
"We had to stop the finance bill, not because it was wrong, but because of propaganda. We eventually passed all the clauses of the finance bill because there was nothing wrong," he said.
The president urged leaders to engage young Kenyans more constructively, arguing that the country's youth deserve honest leadership focused on education, employment, and economic opportunity rather than manufactured outrage.
"The young people of Kenya are the greatest resource that we have. They are a blessing to our nation from God. We should not abuse them or misuse them. The sooner Kenyans get to know the results of an election, the better for our nation. So I'm asking those leaders who are really bankrupt of ideas and whose only business with our young people is to try and abuse and misuse them for their own selfish political ends with propaganda and nonsense, trying to mobilize people around things that don't exist. Please, let us have better engagement with the young people of Kenya," he pleaded.
Did parliament ban livestreaming of election results?
Meanwhile, the controversy centres on Clause 22 of an election bill that arrived from the Senate proposing to repeal and replace Section 39 of the Elections Act, the provision that governs how results are transmitted and declared.
Several media outlets had reported, following Thursday's parliamentary vote, that the House had stripped out the livestreaming requirement, drawing comparisons to a similar IEBC proposal that a justice committee shot down in 2022. The reports triggered an immediate and heated public backlash on social media.
The National Assembly, however, pushed back against that interpretation, stating that it deleted Clause 22 in its entirety rather than amending it, which means Section 39 of the Elections Act remains unchanged, including the specific livestreaming obligation under Section 39(1G).
Source: TUKO.co.ke
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