“Elections belongs to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” These words of Abraham Lincoln on elections about 200 years ago, could act as a reference point for any voter who is in dire need of making the correct choice of a candidate to vote for.

Kenya, a country that boasts of an overwhelming 43 tribes has had a beautiful history of citizens who vote on tribal lines without caring if such a choice would be consequential or not.

Among the statements made by different leaders in the recent past, especially during the ongoing voter registration mobilization, leaders from different political outfits have seen the need to remind their people why it would be of great importance to register as voters and eventually cast the same votes for the leaders that represent the given communities.

 Among these statements are those that have urged a certain community to register in large numbers to protect what they refer to as ‘kingship’.

In the mobilization campaigns, you are likely to hear some politicians ask the voters to register, not as an exercise of their rights, but as a necessity for the community to stay in power.

The second phase of the mass voter registration, however, seems to be so timely; it comes at a time when drought is ravaging various parts of the country with an obvious government’s slow response to curb the same.

 It is also evident that most of the parts affected by the drought, for example, Kilifi county seem to have overwhelmingly voted for the ruling coalition.

On the spotlight is Baringo county, the home county of the Former President Moi, a region that also voted almost to the last man for the current government.

However, it catches the eyes of any serious observer at the response of the government. Instead of diverting resources to help out people ravaged by the effects of the drought, the president has been seen launching military equipment that Kenyans are told will be used to secure the country from both foreign and local threats.

In Embu county, for instance, the county commissioner has warned the area residents who ought to benefit from relief food that no one would get such foods if he/she is not yet registered as a voter.

 So what actually motivates one to register as a voter? Why is the vote of a hungry man so important to the government more than their lives? Why actually do people vote after every five years if not to find alternative solutions to the problems that they face seasonally? Between a voter’s card and food, which one is a basic right?

 We all know one cannot live without food; at least no normal man, you know what I mean, you can open your Bibles, please. It is, therefore, a fallacy of the highest order to say that a voter’s card can open the gates to food kingdom that are offered by the Jubilee government to the citizens that they have deliberately decided to starve.

We all know that the weather man predicted drought in Kenya as early as October 2016? Were they to act in the same manner they acted on the perceived El-Nino rains, maybe Kenyans wouldn’t have found themselves in the same situations they are in currently. The whereabouts of El-Nino Funds, however, remain unknown.

If residents of Baringo, Embu, Laikipia, Turkana, Mandera and all other citizens of this country affected by the droughts and who have lost their cattle and lives are equally Kenyans, then a right-thinking citizen or leader would give them an alternative method of demonstrating dissatisfaction with the current regime.

A method different from absconding voter registration; they should register as voters and justly punish their oppressor, the government of the day; for there is no such thing as not voting.
There are two types of voting; voting by voting or voting by staying home, the latter should be left for fools who do not understand the purpose of their existence and the power of a voter’s card.

Yes, vote before you die, but vote wisely, your choice may keep you alive.