"Vijana Gutuke: Youth Wake Up!" is the campaign slogan that Kenya's top entertainers directed at the untapped six million youth constituency of voters. In the 2007 election lead-up, OSIEA supported a national campaign of music concerts and media messages that mobilized youth to register and vote.
Thousands of young voters were registered at large daylong concerts that interspersed entertainment with messages about voting and nonviolent political activism. A voter's card was required for entry, and those without were immediately registered at booths set up by the electoral commission.
A lack of faith in the political system has marginalized the youth vote and frustrated youth are often manipulated to participate in electoral violence. Now armed with their voter's card for life, many young Kenyans can thank this model collaboration between the Institute for Education in Democracy, Trueblaq entertainment, and Redykulass comedy group, with the Electoral Commission of Kenya.
OSIEA works with Youth Agenda, an organization with a wide grassroots network that mobilizes young people to participate meaningfully in political processes. Youth Agenda assists youth acquire their national identity cards to enable them to cast their votes. A proportion of Kenya's unregistered voters are eligible youth who cannot access their national ID, which is mandatory to obtain a voter's card. This effort helps young people to acquire their ID cards and register as voters as well as to sensitize the Provincial Administration, specifically the local area chiefs, on the need to facilitate and support youth to acquire their documentation.