Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 23 Issue 2

impetus to increased participation in the voting processes during elections. Such a curriculum is critical to ensuring that the youth appreciate what it means to be citizens and what their contribution must be to their communities and the country at large. In designing effective voter education campaigns, targeted at young people, it is important that the objectives of the campaign are clearly identified, as different approaches are required to achieve divergent goals. For instance, it is the role of various stakeholders, including the government and CSOs to hold workshops for the youth on election and electoral processes, including, how they can participate as voters and candidates for elective positions. In the months leading up to the August 2022 polls, observers suggested that the youth factor could help heal Kenya's often toxic tribal politics, with a younger electorate less likely to vote according to ethnic affiliations. However, we argue that though the youth are less tribally-minded, the majority of them majority lack ideological steadfastness. As such, teaching cognitive skills to allow young voters to make a meaningful choice is important. Therefore, as e-voting is brought closer to them, the youth voters need to be able to assess the competing views and positions of political parties and candidates in order to make a meaningful choice. This necessitates being provided with background information and relevant arguments on issues and information on the positions taken by the various candidates and parties. Public, media, and school- based debates, as well as non-partisan voting guides can assist in allowing the youth registered as voters to make informed choices and advance their own interests. Education about the role, responsibility and rights of young voters ought to be appealing to young people’s civic spirit, patriotism, responsibilities and duties as citizens of a particular country. If successful, it will greatly provide the necessary motivation to participate in elections, and develop good voting habits from a young age. Voting apathy has also been experienced during general elections, despite intense mobilization for the youth to register as voters. As explained by one civic educator, “we did a lot of mobilization during registration using all available election tools and still voter apathy was too high." Some youths didn’t show interest to vote, and one of them argued that: "I don't think I am going to vote," …"I have no interest, because the politicians put themselves first rather than us." Source 4 : Kijana-jihusishe-youth-promoting-peaceful-2022-elections-kenya project. From the foregoing discussion, it is noted that organizations such as the European Union (EU) recognize the significance of youth engagement, empowerment and participation in democratic governance, before, during, and after elections. Through empowerment programme, such as the Kijana Jihusishe in informal settlements, the EU worked with the Life and Peace Institute, the Kesho Alliance, and the SNDA Africa to sensitize the youth and strengthened their participation in the 2022 General elections. The project took a peer-to-peer approach to reach out to fellow youths, including the hard-to-reach and those more likely to participate in political violence. Through such kind of initiatives, the youths get enlightened on the significance and role of elections and voting in a democracy. This involves educating young voters to understand that elections are one of the defining events of a democratic system. Likewise, voting allows them to make informed choices between individuals, parties and policy options. Campaigns need to help young people to understand that their vote counts and has a significant influence on the political decisions of their country. Besides, in order to create and sustain momentum for efforts to get young people excited about 4 https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/kenya/kijana-jihusishe-youth-promoting-peaceful-2022-elections-kenya_en?s=352 © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue II Version I 66 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 C Can e-voting Improve Youth Voter Turnout?: Experiences from the Kenya 2022 General Elections