Voter education and youth political participation among youth leaders at Nantional Council Level in Uganda and Kenya

Abstract

In Uganda and Kenya, youth have largely been absent from national political decision-making despite the demographic predominance of young people in East Africa, and youth councils and party structures are often little more than tokenistic rather than substantive. This research investigates the influence of voter education on political participation of youth with the national youth council leaders, with three objectives: ways employed in voter education; youth exposure to youth education methods; and the overall impact of voter education on youth political participation. Drawing upon participatory democracy theories, political efficacy and social capital, the research utilizes a sequential mixed-method approach involving surveys and key informant interviews. Results show that a variety of voter education programs are available, with the digital, and social, media being the best followed by traditional media, civic education and community outreach. Regression results show a positive moderate correlation between voter education strategies and youth participation, with the analysis accounting for 26% of the variance in youth participation, and that availability of voter education correlated positively with high levels of electoral knowledge, registration, and mobilisation of the youth. Bernhard et al.’s (2001) finding suggests that it is still far too weak methods. However, its capacity to generate political accountability among young people is still modest. The regressions additionally indicate that voter education by itself is not significant in terms of its direct effect on participation, implying that larger macro-level elements – political trust, economic resources, and institutional trust – may have a greater influence. In theoretical terms, the results provide partial support for political efficacy and participatory democracy literature in that knowledge and exposure do indeed encourage participation, however they also contradict the hope that civic education can redress deeply entrenched power asymmetries. It is found that voter education is necessary but not a sufficient condition for youth friendly meaningful participation at local level and youth representation in local governance can be transformed into genuine democratic representation by coupling civic empowerment, digital engagement & institutional reforms.