By Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku
Abuja, Nigeria – Ken Bosire, commissioning editor of the bird story agency in Kenya has said that poor youth participation in the August 9, 2022, election was what swung the election in the direction in which it did, with the outcome that William Ruto defeated his rival, Ralia Odinga and was elected president.
Mr Bosire said that even though Kenyan youth, ranging in ages from 35 – 45 making up 13 percent of Kenyan citizens registered to vote, most did not vote.
“In addition to the fact that Kenyan youth were mostly away from the polling booths, other factors that influenced the outcome of the elections was that politicians hardly connected with the electorate. They did not get their messaging right – they spoke the religious and ethnic language, and this put a lot of voters off,” Mr. Bosire said during an editorial meeting of contributors for the bird story agency.
Bird is a story agency designed to shift narratives about and in Africa, away from dangerous stereotypes. Bird produces multimedia stories designed for an African, mobile-first audience, for distribution to Africa’s leading digital news platforms.
Bird content is distributed for free. Their work is made possible through the support of #AfricaNoFilter, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
“Kenya and Nigeria were colonized by Britain, and the outcome of the elections in Kenya may influence that of Nigeria. I hope Nigerian youth do not behave like the Kenyan if they truly want the changes they think they deserve,” a contributor in the bird editorial meeting said.
The coming elections in Nigeria has generated a lot of interest mostly because of the strong support that one of the presidential candidates enjoy among the young people of Nigeria. Instead of having two candidates like the American and Kenyan, the Nigerian election will be among Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
