With a spanking new vote, I'm armed and determined to make my voice count next year

The registration process lies with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission.[Elvis Ogina, Standard]

I registered as a voter last Friday. It was at the prompting of a Gen-Z, Nate, whose father, Bonnie Mwangi, is running for President. Well, prompt isn’t the proper term; it was a bet. I thought I was registered, but that had happened before Nate’s birth! So, Nate offered a bet: If I weren’t in the role of voters, I’d buy him a shawarma at a nearby outlet. And he’d return the favour if I were registered.

From the foregoing, I lost the bet. The data from “those years gone by” were no longer in the register, the attendant who had pitched a tent at Mageuzi Hub told me. So young Nate had a whale time taunting that I was “too old” not to be registered! I had a good time reminding him that I had voted before he was born, so he was enjoying the dividends of his forebears. And a free shawarma!

I have always assumed that I was among the ten million Kenyans who boycotted voting in the last general election because I didn’t think it was important enough. Well, truth be told, I wasn’t in the country for the last two election cycles, which is why I never bothered registering in the first place. Or I had assumed I was registered.

Now that I have a vote, I have started paying attention to the men and women who are likely to win my vote. That’s the difficult part when you don’t even know their name! I kid you not. I have had to make a real effort to dig out my local MP, MCA, etc. That’s how apolitical I am.

Or it could be that many of our MCAs, MPs, Senators, Governors and Women Reps are bure kabisa, that’s why none catch my attention. So the task of finding an individual who deserves my vote will require some time to discern. But I am patient and I’ll get there.

But the majority of politicians who are at the feeding trough better eat their fill because from the rigorous review I’m going to make, very few will make the cut.