Will Mandatory Registration Improve Democracy?

An IEBC official takes a voter's finger print details during a voter registration exercise {Photo Courtesy}

My take is about the ongoing mass voter registration.

Over the last week or so, we’ve seen politicians crisscross the country in an attempt to rally their bases to register in numbers. And that is great.

We’ve also heard calls by the IEBC for all Kenyans- of voting age, to pick up their ID cards and do the needful. That too is great.

That is because the right of every Kenyan adult to choose his or her leaders is enshrined in the Constitution. But the reason I am talking about this issue now is because some overzealous Kenyans are taking this need to register a bit too far.

In Vihiga, for instance, an official of the county government put out a circular directing county officers not to serve anyone who has not registered to vote. Can you imagine that?

If you thought that was bad, the county commissioner of Embu- Esther Maina, took this senseless zeal to a whole new level.

The good lady said in broad daylight that she would arrest those who fail to register as voters. Never mind that she has no power to arrest anyone but she went further to threaten to withhold food from those who will not have registered. She added, and I quote “Nikona na sheria yangu ambayo nitakuweka ndani” well madam, there is only one supreme law in the land.

That law can do a lot of things, one thing it cannot and should not do is interfere with the freedom of thought and of speech.

The right to vote, is an expression of one’s freedom as enshrined in the Constitution. Choosing not to vote is also an expression of freedom, the freedom not to speak.

When we don’t vote, we don’t speak and that is a message in itself. But this national madness has now gone to ridiculous levels.

There are reports that in Migori, bodaboda operators will not carry anyone who cannot demonstrate that they are registered to vote. And last Sunday – get this - a certain pastor in Nairobi is said to have refused to preach his sermon until he could confirm that his congregants are on the IEBC register! Lord have mercy!

Ladies and gentlemen, this is no way to deal with voter apathy. Instead, we must ask ourselves why people don’t want vote.

Could it be that they don’t like any of the candidates, or the campaign issues or indeed the political parties?  Or perhaps, is that they are simply disillusioned by the political process? That too is their right!

My message is simple: if you can’t convince them, just live and let live. For that is democracy. And that is my take.