Francis Wambugu Irungu The electoral commission convened a 200-strong youth forum on Thursday ahead of the 2027 General Election, warning that only 200,000 of an estimated 6.3 million eligible young voters have registered
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) brought its youth outreach agenda to Kirinyaga County on Thursday 26th, hosting a forum that drew over 200 young people in a structured dialogue on electoral participation, civic responsibility, and the looming challenge of youth voter registration ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The forum, attended by Kirinyaga Central MP Hon. Joseph Gachoki Gitari, County Commissioner Hussein Allasow, and senior IEBC officials, was framed not as a lecture but as a listening exercise, a deliberate posture that Commissioner Dr. Alutalala Mukhwana, who chairs the Commission’s Committee on Voter Education, Partnerships, Communication and Stakeholder Engagement, set from the outset.
“Youth are important stakeholders in the electoral process. We are here to listen to what you want IEBC to do,” Dr. Mukhwana told participants on Thursday, encouraging candid contributions. He also pushed back against generational narratives that frame youth and experience as opposing forces. “While youth is a spark full of energy, wisdom is a steady flame, the two must complement each other rather than compete,” he said.
The most striking moment of Thursday’s forum came from IEBC Acting CEO and Commission Secretary Moses Ledama Sunkuli, who laid bare a registration gap that officials described as a democratic emergency. Of approximately 6.3 million young Kenyans eligible to vote based on national identity card issuance data, only around 200,000 new voters have so far been registered, a fraction that falls far short of the youth’s potential electoral weight.
Sunkuli was direct in his appeal to the assembled youth. “The future of this country will not be determined without you, but by you,” he said, reminding them that young people constitute the largest voting bloc in the country and its most digitally connected generation. He also urged them to apply for roles in the Commission’s upcoming Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration exercise, including positions as Voter Registration Assistants, Registration Clerks and ICT Clerks, describing the opportunity as a hands-on way to safeguard the integrity of Kenya’s democracy.
Commissioner Ann Nderitu, who oversees election operations, delivered one of Thursday’s more pointed messages, stripping the conversation around participation down to its most basic requirement. “You cannot say that you are participating in governance if you are not a registered voter,” she said, calling on attendees to not only register themselves but to actively pull their peers into the process.
Nderitu also offered a broader reflection on the window of opportunity that the years between 18 and 35 represent. “After 30 years, you are actually that background your children will start complaining about,” she said, urging young people to make deliberate choices now rather than inherit or perpetuate cycles of disadvantage.
County Commissioner Allasow used his platform to issue a firm caution, warning young people against being mobilized by politicians to incite violence or disrupt electoral processes. MP Gitari, for his part, commended the IEBC for its handling of recent by-elections, saying the Commission had reinforced public trust in Kenya’s constitutional framework.
The forum was supported by the Centre for Multiparty Democracy Kenya, whose sponsorship the IEBC CEO acknowledged as a key enabler in the Commission’s broader push to embed democratic culture among the country’s youth population.
