No ID, no voter’s card, but loud online

Kenya’s youth are not disengaged from politics — they have simply moved the conversation to a different room

By Simon Juma

He is 19, in his second year at university. He has no national ID and has never registered to vote. But he knew what the Cabinet Secretary said before the nine o’clock news finished — because it was already a meme on TikTok. He has never attended a town hall, but he spent three hours last night in a WhatsApp group debating university funding.

This is the Kenyan youth. Not apathetic. Differently engaged.

For decades, political participation meant a queue, a ballot and a stamped finger. The internet has quietly rewritten that definition. A student in Kitale now commands the same potential audience as a national newspaper. A 30-second TikTok explaining the housing levy reaches more people than a full-page advertisement. A thread on X can shift public opinion faster than a press conference.

That is not noise. That is civic education — messy, fast and largely self-organised.

The danger is stopping there. Likes are not votes. Trends do not build roads. Online energy without offline action is a rehearsal that never becomes a performance.

The gap must be closed deliberately. Turn a viral thread on unemployment into a campus CV workshop. Turn a TikTok on governance into attendance at a county budget forum. Institutions must also adapt — if you want youth participation, host a live session at eight in the evening on TikTok, not a baraza at ten on a Tuesday morning.

Most importantly: register. Show up. The online vote is practice.

The real one still needs your ID.

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