• A section of school leaders says the critical role of schools as a voting bloc has opened room for politicians to prey on possible voters.
• Last week, Education CS George Magoha ordered that success cards with politicians' names printed on them should be destroyed before they get to students.
Image: File
The pivotal role schools will play in the election will extend beyond being used as polling stations as some students will be first-time voters.
According to the Kenya National Examination Council, in the 2020 KCSE exam, 220,574 were 18 years, and 289,079 were between 19 and 20 years.
Another 102,004 were 22 years old, while 24,208 were aged 23 years and above.
This means out of the 752,605 candidates who sat the KCSE exam, 635,865 were qualified to acquire identification cards and voter’s card.
This translates to 84 per cent of the total number of candidates who sat the 2020 KCSE exam.
In the 2019 KCSE exam, 84 per cent (589,650) of the candidates were between 18 and 23 years.
Of the number, 167,435 candidates aged 18 year, (303,573) were between 19 and 20 years, (93,801) 21 and 22 years, and (24,841) over 23 years.
In the last two years, schools have churned out 1,225,515 eligible voters.
If the numbers are anything to go by, it means that another over half a million learners who are set to sit their KCSE exam in March will be eligible to be voters in for the August election.
The Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission will conduct the second phase of enhanced continuous voter registration (ECVR) between January 17 and February 6.
This means if the students who have attained 18 years have IDs, they can register as voters to enable them to vote on August 9.
Political target
A section of school leaders say the critical role of schools as a 'voting bloc' has opened room for politicians to prey on possible voters.
School heads say this could be through helping candidates aged 18 and above with the application of IDs.
Other methods include donations of learning materials and other school essentials like sanitary towels to girls.
Last week, Education CS George Magoha ordered that success cards with politicians' names amd images printed on them should be destroyed before they get to students.
“Ensure that you destroy any success messages sent to students bearing political portraits without fear or favour. Our children are not in politics, they are just children,” Magoha said in Kisumu.
Success cards remain the most common form of sending success messages to candidates sitting their exams.
The move by Magoha could be viewed as a step towards preventing manipulation of the ‘new voting bloc.’
Nicholas Maiyo, however, thinks schools have not done due diligence in helping students make an informed decision as they exercise their right to vote.
“Fair enough the CS is critical in protecting the students from politicians, but on the other hand, I don’t think he has empowered the over half a million students he has each year on how to be responsible voters,” he told the Star on Sunday.
Maiyo said students are taught and not trained on how to be responsible voters.
“They probably won’t be voting because they barely have any sense of responsibility towards choosing leaders. If they vote, their vote won’t be influenced by what they learnt in school," he said.
Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairman Indimuli Kahi said responsible citizenship is taught in schools through social studies in primary and history and government in secondary.