What an Election Court Actually Looks At When You Challenge a Result
Updated 2 October 2026.
An election court works from paper. Almost everything that decides a Kenyan petition was generated inside a polling station on polling day by somebody filling in a form.
That is worth understanding early, because it tells a campaign exactly what to collect and what to ignore.
The results forms are the spine of every case
Six series, one per office. Form 34 for President, 35 for MP, 36 for MCA, 37 for Governor, 38 for Senator and 39 for Woman Representative.
Within each series the A form is completed at the polling station and the B form at the constituency tally. For governor, senator and woman representative the C form is the declaration at the county tally, and for the President it is the declaration at the national tally.
The single most powerful thing a petitioner can show is a mismatch between those levels. It requires no witness and no interpretation. The station form said one number, the tally form carried another, and the difference is arithmetic that anybody in the courtroom can check.
This is also why a signed copy handed to your agent at the station is worth more than any other document your campaign will ever hold.
The marked register and the KIEMS records
The register used at the station is marked as each voter is issued with a ballot.
It answers a question no other document answers: how many people were actually given a ballot paper at this station. Compare that with the number of ballots counted and any gap has to be explained.
Courts take this seriously because it is difficult to construct after the fact and because the discrepancy, if there is one, is specific to a station rather than a rumour about a region.
KIEMS is the Kenya Integrated Elections Management System, used for biometric identification of voters and for transmission of results.
Its logs carry identification records and transmission times. Where a petition alleges that a result was altered between the station and the tally, or that identification failed at scale in particular stations, those records are the material that either supports or destroys the allegation.
They are held by the commission rather than by you, which means access is something the court directs. Plead the specific stations and the specific question, because a request for everything is a request a court can refuse as unfocused.
The polling day diary and the seals
The presiding officer keeps a record of the day. Who was present, when the box was sealed, the serial numbers of the seals, complaints raised, incidents logged.
In a scrutiny exercise the seal numbers recorded in the diary are compared with the seals on the box the court opens. Agreement is unremarkable. Disagreement is the kind of finding that carries weight without any argument being made about it.
Agent affidavits, and what makes one useful
An agent's sworn statement is evidence. How much weight it carries depends almost entirely on what it is attached to.
An affidavit saying "I saw irregularities" is close to worthless. An affidavit saying "I was the agent at this named stream, I was present at the count, the presiding officer entered this figure on Form 38A, here is my signed copy, and the figure that reached Form 38B was different" is a case.
The difference between the two is not legal skill. It is whether the agent left the station with the copy.
Related: what a court can order over the ballots themselves.
What courts discount, and the one number they will examine
Screenshots without provenance. Statements from people who were not present. Broadcast commentary. Numbers circulated on social media during the tally. Generalised allegations naming no station.
None of that is evidence of anything, and filling a petition with it makes the genuine paragraphs harder to find.
Rejected ballots are the opposite. Every station form records them, and in a close race the rejected figure can exceed the margin. It is one of the few numbers a court can examine directly by looking at the ballots.
Related: why nobody reads that line.
What to build before 10 August 2027
An intake system, not a WhatsApp group.
Every agent leaves the station with a signed copy of the results form for their stream. Every copy reaches one named person the same night. Every incident is written down the same day with the time, the station, the officer present and the names of anybody else who saw it.
Build that in 2026 and test it at any smaller poll you can. Campaigns discover the gaps in an intake system exactly once, and the cheap time to discover them is not the night a result is declared.
Frequently Asked Questions
What evidence matters most in a Kenyan election petition?
A signed copy of the polling station results form, obtained by your agent at the station. A mismatch between the station form and the tally form is arithmetic anybody in court can check, needs no witness and no interpretation. Everything else in a petition tends to support that core.
Does the marked copy of the register matter in a petition?
Yes. It records how many voters were issued with a ballot at that station, which is a number no other document supplies. Comparing it with the ballots counted exposes any gap, and the gap is specific to a station rather than a general allegation about a region.
What kind of evidence do election courts give little weight to?
Screenshots without provenance, statements from people who were not present, broadcast commentary, figures circulated during the tally, and allegations that name no polling station. Including a lot of it makes the genuinely useful paragraphs of a petition harder to find.