Schools Reopening Date Moved Again as Kenyans Await Election Results

The schools re-opening date in Kenya has been pushed to Thursday, August 18 from Monday, August 15. The move is intended to allow for the smooth completion of the ongoing vote tallying and verification exercise by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

The announcement was made by the Ministry of Education on Saturday, August 13 as Kenyans continued to wait for the official declaration of results of the Presidential election. The election took place on August 9 and the IEBC has seven days to declare the results according to the Constitution.

In the past week, the Ministry had moved the schools reopening date to August 15 from the initially scheduled August 11. In the newest statement pushing it further forward, Cabinet Secretary George Magoha noted that the latest directive superseded any earlier communication from the ministry.

“I hereby convey the Government’s decision on the suspension of reopening of all Basic Education institutions with effect from Monday, August 15, 2022 to Thursday, August 18, 2022,” the CS noted.

Besides the Presidency, the IEBC has been announcing results for other races including Parliament, Senate and Gubernatorial races. Anxiety has however been high among the general public with many hoping for a quick conclusion to an extremely tight race.

Independent tallies by the media are yet to reveal an outright winner in the first round. Bigwigs in the leading camps of William Ruto and Raila Odinga have both exuded confidence of victory for their respective coalitions.

The Returning Officer for the Presidential election is IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati, is expected to declare the winner after verifying Forms 34B from 291 constituencies.

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