Slow tallies in close Kenya presidential vote feed anxiety

Vote-tallying in Kenya’s close presidential election isn’t moving fast enough, the electoral commission chair said Friday, while parallel counting by local media stopped or dramatically slowed amid public concerns about censorship or meddling.

Differing tallies by media outlets fed anxiety as longtime opposition leader Raila Odinga, backed by former rival and outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta in his fifth attempt at the presidency, was in a race with Deputy President William Ruto, who fell out with the president years ago.

Three days after Tuesday’s vote, Kenyans wondered whether the presidential election would go to a runoff for the first time.

The head of the government-created Media Council of Kenya told The Associated Press that “no one has asked anyone to stop” their tallies, but added that “we want to align the numbers with each other” and “I think let’s peer review our numbers.” David Omwoyo was going into a meeting with media leaders as he spoke.