WYCLIFFE MUGA: Eternal mystery of youth vote

One of the most commonplace contradictions of politics is that people often do not mean what they say. And this applies as much to aspiring leaders as to the average Kenyan.

This in part explains why in Kenya there is a curious love/hate relationship between the elected leaders and the voters.

Between elections, Kenyans will curse their leaders and swear that they cannot wait to correct the grievous mistake they made in voting for that particular man or woman. You will hear repeated references to a “useless governor” or a “useless MP” who is doomed to lose in the next election. But this “useless” leader will sometimes get re-elected.

And even if the voters do support someone else, this person usually turns out to be no different from the “useless” leader who has just been “flung into the dustbin of history.”

It is from such a perspective that we can try and understand a very odd thing that is happening right now – the low turnout in virtually every corner of the country, now that voter registration has started.

For many months now, we have seen the frontrunners in the 2022 presidential election, the Deputy President William Ruto, and the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, drawing exceptionally large crowds to their political rallies.

These crowds mostly consist of the young and unemployed – or at the very least, the underemployed. These are the people who have felt the sharp edge of government neglect, as they end up in those informal ‘jua kali’ businesses essentially because they have no other options for earning a living.

Rationally then, those among these young people, who do not have a voter’s card, should have rushed to register the moment that the registration clerks laid out their registers at some local school or community centre. As people whose diminished opportunities have been so well defined over the past five years, you would expect them to be in a great hurry to empower themselves with a voter’s card.

But far from that being the case, what we see and hear of, is leaders in various parts of the country begging the young people to go out and register as voters. And such pleas thus far, falling on deaf ears.

An eloquent example of this, complete with a full rationalisation of why voting is so important, came from the presidential candidate and ANC party leader, Musalia Mudavadi. Here is what he said (as quoted in The Star earlier this week):

“My people, you all need to be registered voters…We need to increase our voting numbers. I am urging the clergy to keep reminding us all in churches that we must get registered so that our votes can count come next year…The voter’s card is the only tool that we shall all be required to use while electing good leaders who will propel good governance and development.”

Very eloquently stated.

But how then do we reconcile these two plain facts: On the one hand, the youth have the most to gain from voting in enlightened leaders who may manage to find ways to create the economic opportunity that these youths so desperately crave. And people of this cohort are a clear majority of Kenyan voters in any one election.

But on the other hand, these young Kenyans appear to be indifferent to the electoral process? For how else do we interpret the fact that there is a reported average of 10 people registering daily in most of the registration centres, while the target is for six million new voters to be registered in 30 days?

One possible explanation here is that these youths have long given up hoping that they will actually be able to bring about real change through their votes.

And so, they are content to be entertained at political rallies; to receive handouts of cash where these are available; and to remain at home sulking on election day.