[dropcap]P[/dropcap]ERCHED on a concrete block in Kariobangi South, one of Nairobi’s rougher neighbourhoods, a group of young men engage in a frenzied debate about the English Premier League, oblivious to a voter registration exercise happening just a few yards away.
The East African powerhouse is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on August 9, with the vote shadowed by worries over the economy, unemployment and the coronavirus pandemic.
Six million youngsters will become eligible to vote this year as they come of age. But many show little appetite for the exercise, disillusioned with a political elite widely seen as inept and corrupt.
‘I am not really sure I am going to vote,’ 22-year-old student Renee Joanne told AFP as she waited to register her name.
‘Even if you vote, the leaders are still the same and I don’t think there is going to be… much of a difference.’
In recent months, analysts have suggested that the youth factor could be a cure for Kenya’s often toxic politics, with earlier polls pitting one tribe against the other and descending into deadly violence over contested results.
Observers say the 2022 vote could transform the status quo with young people less inclined to identify with ethnic affiliations.
They may have to wait a while.
Dismal showing
A nationwide mass registration exercise aimed at enlisting new voters delivered dismal results, reaching just 40 percent of its target when it ended on Sunday, according to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Kenya’s poll regulator.
Across Nairobi, electoral clerks waited hours for applicants to turn up, often tallying up the day’s count in single digits as registration centres remained stubbornly empty.
The lacklustre showing came in spite of a concerted effort by local authorities to fire up young prospective voters. Officials in one county even offered government employees two weeks of leave so they could use the time to encourage family members and friends to register.
Political parties are not far behind.
The Communist Party of Kenya, a new entrant to the political fray, even released a song in Gengetone – a genre of street rap – trying to coax youngsters into voting for them come August.
‘They have lied to us, never did their jobs. When we eat bones, they eat the meat. They’re potbellied because of the money they robbed from us,’ the singers rap, urging riled up youth to get out and vote.
But their audience is unmoved.
Despite under-35s accounting for three-quarters of Kenya’s population, many believe they have little power to sway electoral outcomes.
‘National failure’
Political analyst Macharia Munene said the apathy reflects a ‘national failure’ to inculcate a ‘sense of civic obligation’ in young people.
‘You look at the sort of things we teach in school, there is little about national responsibility or national identity,’ Munene told AFP.
The presidential contest is already shaping up to be a two-horse race between Deputy President William Ruto and four-time presidential contender Raila Odinga.
Ruto was initially anointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor but has found himself on the outs after Kenyatta and Odinga forged an alliance in 2018.
The 55-year-old is hoping that his rags-to-riches journey from street hawker to top-ranked politician will resonate with Kenya’s youth, fashioning himself as a spokesman for the ‘hustlers’ trying to make ends meet in a country ruled by ‘dynasties.’
The Kenyatta and Odinga families have dominated Kenyan politics since independence in 1963.
Some prospective voters say the apathy has to end if Kenya is to progress.
Gideon Ochieng was among a handful of people to add his name to the voter roll in Kariobangi South last week.
‘I do not know what has become of the youth,’ he told AFP, speaking in Sheng, a local slang popular with urban youngsters.
‘There are those who say registering or voting is a waste of time… some of them want change, but they do not want to vote the leaders to effect that change,’ the 25-year-old said.
But shifting perceptions will be a daunting task, with many youngsters expressing a sense of hopelessness about the political process.
Caroline Wanjiru, 25, said she had high expectations when she voted for the first time in 2017.
‘I (thought) that the leaders would make changes, but they disappointed me,’ she told AFP.
‘Why vote when they will still steal?’
