To vote or not to vote?.......that is the question

This isn’t a post where I’ll tell you who to vote for. I’m also not going to tell you which political party is the best. Anyone who watches and reads the news can judge that for themselves. We all know that voter registration is ongoing and that next year we’ll be having elections. We also know that around 75% of Kenya’s population is under the age of 30 years. 43% are 15 years and below. That leaves 32% of the population at age 16-30 years. Majority of who are eligible voters. Compare that 32% of young people to 21% of Kenyans between ages 30-65 (Our parents??). I arrived at these figures by looking at the results of the 2009 census and data on the Ministry of youth affairs and sports website among other websites and then I did my math. So we can assume that at least 50% of eligible voters are young people. Yet sadly a number of these won’t vote. And they have the best excuses too! Like:

• Politics is boring. Ok so I’m assuming that if you have an ID and you probably weren’t ready to have it because that comment right there is just plain childish. You think it’s boring? I wonder how boring you’ll think it is when those very politicians will come up with policies and laws that will affect your day to day life?? And not in a good way!! What if your local politician decided to spend CDF funds on himself/herself instead of improving the roads in your constituency, and one day you had a crippling road accident because of the bad state of the roads! Will it still be boring then?
• All politicians are corrupt so why should I vote for them? I am not going to start defending people here but at the same time I’m not going to encourage stereotypes because there are some good people out there who actually have a vision for Kenya! So how about you just do your research first before assuming!
• I just don’t know who to vote for. Well, find out! Read a newspaper, watch the news, go check out their websites and facebook accounts! (I’m serious about facebook and websites by the way. According to the 2009 census 63.2% of Kenyan households have access to a mobile phone. Considering that most cheap and basic phones these days have colour-screens and internet access I’d say a huge majority can be able to look-up candidates on the internet). Look at what they’re saying. Do they actually know the real and pressing issues of the country? If they are making promises, do they actually have a plan for how they’ll achieve them?
• Even if I vote, how will that help? My personal favourite. You see the thing is, abstaining from voting is the same as voting for the wrong person! Because your vote isn’t there to be counted for the right person.

   This country is ours. I’m not going to say that we’re the leaders of tomorrow because I believe that tomorrow has already come! 2 years from now, if the wrong person is in office yet you didn’t vote I think that you’ll have no right to complain! Because you practically put them there! As much as you are young and wild and free right now, you’ll one day grow up. You’ll one day have a family. So what legacy are you going to leave your children? It’s not about what community the candidate comes from but what he/she can do for the people and what he/she has already done with the opportunity they’ve had in the past. Honestly speaking, if the person vying for MP in my constituency had green skin and was from Mars, I’d still vote for them as long as they had the right vision and plan! So it’s time that we let go of out-dated prejudices and focussed on more important issues. It’s the 21^st century for goodness sake!!

   So find time today, find time tomorrow, find time on Saturday or Sunday. Find time whenever actually (within the 30-day period of course!) and go get yourself registered! And in answer to the title of this blog-post: To vote!! Definitely to vote!!