Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) is going back to the drawing board to address the low voter turnout in the Mount Kenya region.
This is after the highly-televised Nominations poked holes on the ‘8 Million-strong’ hustler nation.
Low voter turnout in Mt Kenya, the loss of bigwigs who could bring in cash and clout, the lack of cash required to man votes in an election, and the unreliability of some of the youth vote who identify with the “hustler nation” now take center stage in the UDA strategy revival.
As big names dropped out of the race, the primaries provided an opportunity for new blood to re-energize the party.
Despite the fact that UDA claims to have eight million registered members eligible to vote in the primaries, the turnout was lower than expected.
Turnout in party primaries, like by-elections, is typically lower than in general elections, but given the UDA’s goal of demonstrating how popular the party is, low voter participation hampered an otherwise smooth process.
The party allowed even non-members to vote in the primaries by using the IEBC register, but the turnout was still low.
Turnout was very low in Mount Kenya, where the United Democratic Alliance has been working hard to unseat President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party.
When comparing the governorship races in the Jubilee Party’s 2017 nominations to those in the recently concluded UDA nominations, it’s clear that Ruto faces a difficult task.
For example, in Kiambu, which had 1.2 million registered voters in 2017, only 138,384 people voted in the governorship election, compared to over 423,520 voters in the battle between Ferdinand Waititu and William Kabogo.
Kiambu has 1.3 million registered voters, according to the IEBC’s most recent vote listing.
However, the DP will have to go above and beyond to improve turnout ahead of the August elections.
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