Tuko Kadi champion Ademba Allans has called on young Kenyans to defy the widespread narrative that they are disengaged from politics by registering to vote, describing the initiative as a citizen-led effort to boost youth participation in elections.
Speaking on Citizen TV on Sunday, Allans revealed that the campaign has already registered tens of thousands of new voters, using social media and community mobilization to reach underrepresented areas.
“The narrative that has been spread across social media, mainstream media, and by politicians is that young people are not registering to vote. We wanted to demystify that,” Allans said, explaining how Tuko Kadi was born.
He recounted how a friend asked him to accompany her to register for voting, which sparked the idea of reaching more people.
“I made a tweet that I was looking for 100,000 unregistered voters in Kasarani, so that I could escort them to register. The tweet went viral, and we created a WhatsApp group. People joined, and in one day, we were able to get 641 newly registered voters,” he said.
Allans emphasized that Tuko Kadi is entirely citizen-led and independent of political funding.
“This is not a politician-led mass voter registration. We don’t want their money. Our goal is to mobilize Kenyans to register for voting and ensure their voices are heard in elections,” he said.
He added that the initiative has already registered over 50,000 young voters nationwide within a week.
Addressing skeptics, Allans stressed the importance of youth involvement in shaping the country’s future.
“Gen Z is being underestimated, but we are here to fight for our country. Twenty, thirty, forty years from now, these politicians will be gone, but our children will face the consequences of poor governance. If we can mobilize people to register, we can take out bad governance and build a better future,” he said.
Allans also criticized the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and mainstream media for failing to effectively reach young voters, highlighting irregularities such as unregistered voters and outdated entries in the voter registry.
“We are targeting one million Kenyans to register before continuous voter registration ends. We are calling on people from all parts of the country to come out and register. Please don’t let us down,” he said.
Through Tuko Kadi, Allans aims to show that youth participation can be organized, powerful, and independent, challenging traditional narratives about young people’s political engagement in Kenya.