Democracy is about representation and public participation, not just voting for Raila or Ruto

For many Kenyans, our ability to vote or not has seemingly become the single yardstick of whether a country is democratic or not.

But a vote alone won't give a citizen the ability to learn more, to have greater agency or to think more critically about the things that affect their lives. A vote alone won't give a citizen the ability to go out and ask for the change they wish to see to make their lives better. And a vote alone won't give people the agency and ability to shape their futures, rather than being limited to making a judgement about their past. For these reasons, we need to look beyond the ballot box - understanding elections and electoral democracy as one part of a wider, more complex system of democracy.