Want massive voter turnout? Offer free meals

     Kenyan dishes                  Photo: candacelately.blogspot.com

Maybe it is time for a few radical solutions to the problem of under-registration and under-voting in some parts of the country, and the reverse trend in others. Perhaps the IEBC needs to get innovative in incentivizing, as NGO types like calling it, the electorate to vote.

Kenyans love three things, especially if those things are free: food, alcohol, and money. Money comes last because it is merely a way of getting to the first two.

And, as one unkind telecom executive noted, Kenyans have peculiar habits with many things, money being one of them: when a certain telecom company introduced savings on call rates, hoping to entice us to make more calls, they were shocked to discover that we spent the money saved on food and tipple.

So, maybe the IEBC could begin by providing free food at polling stations. You walk into the voting booth and, right next to the ballot box is a buffet.

Beers

Immediately you dip your finger in the indelible ink after casting your ballot, you are served a hot dish to reward you for your efforts.

This might not be enough for some people, though. But a drink or two to wash the meal down might just do the trick.

Those who vote are all above 18, and most Kenyan above that age love beer or must be having a soft drink of choice. We are a nation of drinkers, Mr Mututho’s inhibiting laws aside.

So, alongside the mountain of ugali and kuku served after voting, every such voter would receive a voucher for two or three beers, redeemable at any bar far enough from the polling station.

Voter turnouts would be astonishing, and we would break all records.

And where it is shown that someone neither drinks nor wants to eat national food after voting, IEBC could just pay them something small to vote. How hard can it be?