You are our heroes! IEBC lauds youth for driving voter registration drive

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has praised young people for playing a key role in the success of the just concluded enhanced continuous voter registration exercise.

IEBC Chairperson Erastus Ethokon commended Kenyans who participated in the process, singling out the youth for their energy and mobilisation efforts.

“We would like to thank those who participated in one way or another towards the success of this enhanced continuous voter registration exercise. You are our heroes,” Ethokon said.

He noted that young people turned out in large numbers and actively encouraged others to register, including older citizens.

“Particularly, our young people, we would like to thank them. Those who came out with the hashtags like #NikoKadi, those who went out of their way to mobilise themselves, to mobilise the older people, to transport them to our registration centres,” he added.

Ethokon said the youth defied scepticism by showing up in large numbers to register.

“They proved the cynics wrong because they came out and registered,” he said.

Ethokon reported that there was significant improvements in the efficiency and output of the 2026 Enhanced Continuous Voter Registration (ECVR) exercise.

The IEBC Chairperson said the latest drive outperformed previous large-scale registration initiatives conducted in past electoral cycles.

“The ECVR exercise in 2026 has particularly recorded notable improvements both in terms of efficiency and output compared to previous large-scale registration initiatives in the previous electoral cycles,” Ethokon said.

He noted that the commission recorded an average of over 500,000 new voter registrations on a weekly basis during the exercise, signalling a strong public response and improved operational capacity.

The IEBC boss said the gains reflect better planning and execution of the registration process, as the commission continues to update the voter roll ahead of future elections.