Hundreds of Nyamira residents turned up at Ekerenyo stadium on Sunday for a football tournament meant to sensitise area residents to register as voters in the ongoing mass voter registration exercise, as the Youth council unveiled a program that will see more people register as voters.
The tourney started a series of other tournaments to be held in all five sub-counties as they aim to get 300,000 more people on the voter register.
Speaking on Monday, council chairman Vincent Masisa urged youths to graze the tournament and register as voters in large numbers.
“We settled on holding football tournaments across all five sub counties so that we get at least 300,000 people registering as voters. We are targeting the young generation and women because we are aware that many of them are not registered,” Masisa said.
The youth council urged the county government to chip in and support such tournaments at the ward level as a way of reaching more people.
“As the Youth Council, we are determined to have the tournaments succeed and that was typical in Ekerenyo. However, we still need these tournaments art the ward level and it’s our appeal to the county government to help us extend them to that lowest level,” added council secretary Duke Ombagi.
The two officials also appealed to IEBC to extend the voter registration period to two months due to limited BVR kits in the region.
“Yesterday, many youths were unable to register during the tourney because of limited BVR kits. It’s important that IEBC extends the period for another one month. As Youth Council, we will ensure the county register’s highest number of people. We are sure that the tournaments will mobilize the youthful generation to register,” Masisa said.