Voter apathy could become one of the biggest threats to Kenya’s 2027 General Election as growing frustration with political leaders risks keeping millions of citizens away from the ballot, Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has warned.
Speaking during a Radio Generation interview on Monday, Onyonka said the declining interest in elections should not be viewed simply as Kenyans losing interest in politics. He said it was a sign of growing disappointment with the political system and the failure of leaders to deal with basic problems facing citizens.
According to the senator, more voters are beginning to question the real reasons people seek political office, particularly whether they want to improve the lives of citizens or gain wealth and influence.
“My conviction is this: that was what was happening before until the gentle team flipped; they have flipped the coin. You see, voter apathy comes in because people begin to realize that we who are in the ruling class do not even have an interest in fixing the basic problems these people have,” Onyonka said.
He said Kenya's political system had increasingly shifted towards competition for public resources, with less focus on ideology, national unity and service to citizens.
“The game of politics right now in our country, and the people who are running for office right now are not running for office because they want to be less corrupt, less tribal. They want to be inclusive. They want to be real Kenyans, nationalists, because they believe Kenya is bigger than our own,” he said.
Onyonka also linked voter frustration to the financial benefits associated with holding political office, saying this had created a perception among some young Kenyans that elections were mainly contests for access to wealth.
“The fastest way, if I was a young person, and I want to be a multi-millionaire, even not a billionaire, in only five years is to be an MP. Because an MP handles 200 million a year. If he does that for five years and does nothing, he'll have a B(billion). Which other business can you make with that kind of money?” He posed.
The senator argued that such perceptions could weaken public confidence in elections and discourage citizens from taking part in the voting process.
“So the only way one can enrich themselves is through the politics we do, why? Because in Kenya politics, Kenyan politics has no ideology. We are capitalistic, where everybody believes the winner takes it all,” Onyonka said.
His concerns come as Kenya continues to grapple with falling voter participation. Data from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) shows that 22,120,458 voters were registered for the 2022 General Election, but only 14,326,751 took part in the presidential election, giving a turnout of 64.77%.
The turnout was a sharp drop from the 78% recorded in the 2017 General Election. At the same time, the number of registered voters had risen from 19,611,423 in 2017 to more than 22.1 million in 2022.
This meant about 7.8 million registered voters did not cast a ballot in the presidential election.
The decline was also seen during voter registration ahead of the 2022 election. The IEBC's 2021/22 annual report showed that 2,550,939 new voters were registered against a target of six million, with voter apathy listed among the factors behind the shortfall.
A post-election evaluation report gave several reasons for the lower turnout, including economic difficulties, the effects of Covid-19, insecurity, drought and fears of election-related violence.
The 2022 presidential contest was won by William Ruto, who secured 7,176,141 votes against Raila Odinga's 6,942,930. The difference between the two candidates was 233,211 votes, far lower than the number of registered voters who stayed away from the polls.
With the 2027 election approaching, Onyonka said political leaders and institutions would need to address the causes of voter disengagement and restore public confidence in the electoral process.
He said citizens needed to see that elections could lead to accountable leadership and real improvements in their daily lives if participation was to rise.