The Tuko Kadi movement, now gaining nationwide attention, began as a response to low voter registration among young Kenyans despite their vibrant online political engagement.
Youth organiser Ademba Allans revealed that the initiative was born from frustration over the disconnect between digital activism and actual voter participation. The movement has since transformed social media energy into a practical, citizen-led drive for voter registration and political engagement.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Wednesday, Allans said he was alarmed by reports showing many young Kenyans were not registering to vote. “Despite all the online noise that we make, despite all the protests that we attend,” he observed, youth participation at the polls remained low.
The spark came when a friend from Kahawa Estate asked for his help to register, prompting him to explore how to scale the effort beyond individual action.
“I said it would be difficult for me to come all the way… to take one person to register as a voter,” Allans explained. To reach more people, he turned to social media, posting that he was looking for “100k unregistered voters in Kasarani,” a figure he admits was deliberately ambitious to trigger engagement. “In my mind, I knew very well that is not going to work… so I put it that way so it will gain a little bit.”
The approach proved successful. The post went viral, and a WhatsApp group quickly grew to hundreds of participants. “Within three or four hours, I had over 100 people… by the end of the third day, we were around 600 people and in a week’s time we were around 800 people,” Allans said. On the registration day, he used live updates, videos, and social media posts to sustain momentum and encourage turnout.
“The first person that came, I recorded, posted it… making the whole process fun,” he noted. By the end of the exercise, 641 people had registered in Kasarani alone. The initiative quickly expanded beyond the constituency, evolving into a nationwide movement. “This thing is not a Kasarani-based… it’s a Kenya-wide thing,” Allans said, adding that he opened the mobilisation model for replication across the country.
Allans noted that Tuko Kadi has exposed weaknesses in traditional voter mobilisation strategies. “They were doing what they thought they were to do, but they had a wrong reading of the people,” he said, criticizing authorities for failing to engage younger, digitally active populations effectively.
He emphasized that Tuko Kadi is more than just a voter registration campaign. “It’s not a movement that is going to end at people registering to vote… voting is a process,” he said.
The next phase will focus on voter education, political awareness, and civic responsibility. “We need to be active in voter education, in political education, in civic consciousness,” Allans added, urging young people not only to vote but to consider leadership roles. “At 22 you can be elected… being young is not a qualification… you have to show leadership skills.”
Looking ahead, Allans envisions Tuko Kadi as a long-term, citizen-led effort. “It’s going to be Kenyan-led, not one person-led… it’s a collective effort,” he said.
According to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, as of March 24, 2026, about 250,391 new voters have been registered since the continuous registration exercise began on September 29, 2025. This falls short of the national target of 6.3 million new voters ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The commission reports that 50.9% of new registrants are male, 49.1% female, with 67.35% aged above 35 and only 32.65% under 35, bringing the total registered electorate to approximately 22.35 million.
Urban and peri-urban counties, including Nairobi, Kiambu, and Machakos, lead in registration numbers, while counties such as Tana River, Marsabit, and Isiolo lag behind. In response, the commission has launched a 30-day ward-based mass registration drive from March 29 to April 29, 2026, with a Sh1.1 billion budget, aiming to increase the voter roll to over 28 million.