A Samburu warrior has his finger scanned before voting at a polling station in Nkirish, in the Eastern Province, during General Election on August 8, 2017. [Photo/AFP]
Political commentator and columnist Prof Peter Kagwanja has called for compulsory voting for all registered voters.
In a detailed opinion editorial published in the Daily Nation, Kagwanja argued that measures need to be put in place to compel all Kenyans who have attained the required minimum age to participate in the electoral process.
Kagwanja argued that the right to vote has over time been eclipsed by political extremism, citing the just concluded presidential repeat polls that recorded a paltry 39% voter turnout.
"The right to vote has come under attack in Kenya’s October 26, 2017 fresh presidential election in which President Uhuru Kenyatta was re-elected with an overwhelming margin of over 90 percent of a vote that was marred by the opposition boycott, violence, and intimidation of voters," he opined.
"Peculiarly, Kenya’s election reflects a new trend in emerging democracies where the right to vote is abridged and weaponized in the context of election boycotts, intense ethnic mobilization, political violence, and intimidation to produce low voter turnouts," he added.
He further remarked that the poll boycott calls mounted by the Opposition were aimed at raising presidential legitimacy questions for whoever emerges the winner in the repeat polls, thus pushing for a coalition government.
"This resultant “legitimacy crisis” is, in turn, instrumentally used by opposition elites to justify violent protests to push for a caretaker government and a share of power," he asserted.