JAMILA'S MEMO: Can’t vote won't vote, the loud silence of the youth

Yesterday I met a very talented Kenyan gentleman who told me that he has never registered as a voter and is in no hurry to do so and neither will he ever queue in a polling station to cast a ballot.

I asked whether he did not want to have a say in the leadership of his country, but the man insisted that he did not see the need. In another case that is just as intriguing, a lady I met a few days ago told me she mutes her television or gets busy with other things when politicians speak on television or radio. She tells me none of them have inspired her to listen to what they have to say nor given her a reason to vote.

I give these two examples after IEBC announced that it had not met its target in the extended voter registration exercise. The election body had hoped to register 6 million new voters, most of them young people who had turned 18 since the last General Election in 2017. But only 1,413, 444 new names entered the voters roll.

There have been calls for extending the time, hoping for the Kenyan culture of last minute to come through to register more people. There has also been some push and pull with the courts being involved, but the exercise ends tomorrow and nothing short of a miracle will push those numbers anywhere close to the target by close of business. And there is every reason to believe that even giving more funding to the IEBC for the exercise to continue will not solve the problem.

These statistics raise more questions than answers. Several reasons are being given for these low numbers, among them voter indifference. People say they just don’t want to vote. So I ask, why don’t these Kenyans want to engage? The youth who were being targeted in this exercise have just not seen the need to involve themselves. Maybe they are asking themselves where they factor in the politics of this country. Or are our politicians just failing to inspire anymore? Is the fact that no new names are emerging on the scene a factor?

The low voter registration turn out should worry us, and questions need to be asked. For instance, what do the youth turn up for? Politicians like packed rallies full of energetic youth singing colorful praises, wakiitikia wanasiasa wanapozungumza, but why doesn’t this reflect in the voter register in terms of numbers? Okay, let me give the benefit of doubt to the campaign crowds and assume they are registered, but will they turn up in large numbers to vote on August 9, 2022? And how come very few of these politicians use these rallies as an opportunity to encourage the listening and cheering youth to vote?

I remember when we were growing up, we could not wait to turn 18, and register as a voter, and finally exercise our democratic right to choose our leaders. And have the black mark on your finger to show that you did so, proudly showing it around: I voted!

But when I see and hear young people today asking why should I? Then something fundamental has shifted and changed. Do they feel so excluded that they see no need to be involved? Are the methods of voter education and political engagement been so overtaken by the passage of time that young people can’t relate? Or have they been so disillusioned by previous badly conducted elections that they have despaired? If so, what needs to be done to have them have the belief and faith that their voice counts?

These questions need urgent solutions. Every effort must be made to urge them to willingly get involved. Because when roughly 70% of the population is excluded from such monumental national exercises like an election, it can’t be good for the country. Those young people are saying something, by not engaging, we better smell the coffee and change tack.

And that is my memo.