IEBC campaign to target young voters

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), in partnership with IFES, has rolled out a campaign to educate, engage and motivate the youth to participate in the August 2017 General Election.

Under the banner of Y-VOTE (Youth Vote), the campaign the initiative aims at using social media and on-ground activations to rally 18-29 year olds to come out and vote on August 8th. The slogan “Youth Twendeni Tukavote” is a Swahili slang for “Youth, let’s go and Vote”

The Y-VOTE road-show caravan was flagged off on June 20 from Kangemi’s Kihumbu-ini grounds, Nairobi, by IEBC Commissioner Margaret Mwachanya. The campaign will run until 28th July, 2017.

 “The IEBC is committed to conducting elections in a peaceful environment where the voice of all voters are heard equally, regardless of age, gender or social status,” Commissioner Mwachanya. She noted that IEBC has a special role to in educating first-time voters on the electoral process.

The Y-VOTE caravan will traverse 17 counties across the country, motivating the youth with door-to-door canvassing, interactive voter education games, distribution of voter education material and community dialogue. The activation campaign targets areas with a high number of first time voters. It also targets areas with typically low voter turnout and to stem the high number of spoilt votes.

Y-VOTE ads are running on digital platforms – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to educate and motivate youth to vote.