In the run-up to the last General Election, the commission registered 5.2 million voters in two phases. [File, Standard]
Persistent apathy in voter registration has raised fears of lack of interest by youths to participate in the August 9 General Election.
Yesterday, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was set to miss its 4.5 million target by a big margin as the three-week long second mass voter registration concluded.
The commission had by end of second week of the exercise enlisted 548,188 new voters out of a target of 2,987,138 for the period.
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The apathy has become a trend after the first phase of the mass voter registration conducted last year netted only 1,519,294 new voters out of the six million targeted by the commission.
Figures of new voters who registered in the run up to the 2017 polls compared to now paint a picture of a population not interested in casting the ballot to elect new leaders.
In the run up to the last General Election, the commission registered 5.2 million voters in two phases.
During the first phase conducted in 2016, IEBC registered 1.4 million voters while the second phase that concluded in February 2017 netted 3.78 million new voters. The high turnout pushed the total number of registered voters to 19.6 million up from the 14.32 million in the 2013 voters register.
The 2017 registration was highly charged as President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga led their brigades to whip their supporters to register. There was an average of 62 per cent turn out with some counties surpassing their targets.
In the just concluded exercise, Raila and Deputy President William Ruto’s camps have been conducting mobilisation drives with their eyes on achieving the 50 per cent plus one vote constitutional requirement for first-round victory.
But it appears the youth are not keen to register as voters going by the figures recorded so far with some counties recording as low as 10 per cent turnout.
IEBC commissioner Abdi Guliye linked the apathy to uncollected national identification cards and perceived feeling by the youth that they vote may not bring the change they desire.
“A majority of youth have not collected their IDs to enable them register as voters. Some of the IDs are ready but have not been dispatched to local administrators for collection,” said Prof Guliye.
