IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati at a past event [Photo: the-star]
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), in partnership with IFES, has rolled out a campaign to educate, engage and motivate the youth to participate in the upcoming general election.
Under the banner of Y-VOTE (Youth Vote), the campaign aims at using social media and on-ground activation to rally 18-29 year olds to come out and vote on August 8th.
The initiative is dubbed 'Youth Twendeni Tukavote' - a Swahili slang for 'Youth, let’s go and Vote'.
When flagged off the Y-VOTE road-show caravan on Monday at Kangemi's Kihumbu-ini grounds, Nairobi, IEBC Commissioner Margaret Mwachanya said the IEBC has a special role to in educating first-time voters on the electoral process.
"The IEBC is committed to conducting elections in a peaceful environment where the voice of all voters are heard equally, regardless of age, gender or social status," added Ms Mwachanya.
According to a press release sent to newsrooms on Thursday by IEBC Communications Manager Andrew Limo, the Y-VOTE caravan will traverse 17 counties across the country, motivating the youth with door-to-door canvassing, interactive voter education games, distribution of voter education material, and community dialogue.
The activation campaign targets areas with a high number of first time voters as well areas with typically low voter turnout.The campaign that will run until July 28, 2017 also aims at stemming the high number of spoilt votes.