National Youth Council Elections 2026: Registration opens ahead of October polls

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 28 — The National Youth Council (NYC) has launched its voter registration and candidate nomination portal ahead of elections scheduled for October 9 to 30, 2026, marking the first such polls in 14 years.

The portal, elections.nyckenya.go.ke, was unveiled in Nairobi as the government stepped up preparations for the elections, urging young people across the country to register, vote and present themselves for leadership positions.

Principal Secretary for Youth Affairs Jacob Fikirini said the elections are intended to create structured opportunities for young people to participate in decision-making and have their voices represented in matters affecting their lives.

“We have a Kenyan youth who deserves services and attention from the national government,” Fikirini said, stressing the need to amplify civic education and mobilise young people to participate in the process.

The PS said the government was adopting a whole-of-government approach to the elections, bringing together national and county government structures to support mobilisation and civic education.

He said the approach would tap into the structures of the National Government Administration Officers (NGAO), including county commissioners and other administrators, to ensure young people are reached across the country and encouraged to participate.

“We want to be as elaborate as possible,” Fikirini said, noting that the government wants to ensure young people are adequately informed about the process before voting begins.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Creative Economy on Thursday brought together County Executive Committee Members responsible for youth affairs, county commissioners and youth officers from across the country for a high-level consultation and coordination meeting at the Kenya School of Government.

The meeting is part of preparations for the campaign and electoral phase, with the government seeking to coordinate national and county-level actors ahead of the polls.

Three-stage elections

The NYC elections will be conducted in three stages beginning with ward-level elections on October 9, followed by constituency elections on October 16.

The process will culminate in the National Youth Congress on October 30, when national-level representatives will be elected.

The dates and elections team have already been gazetted by Youth Affairs and Creative Economy Cabinet Secretary Salim Mvurya.

The elections will be held 14 years after the last National Youth Council polls in 2012, before the current devolved governance structure was fully established.

Fikirini said the return of the elections provides an opportunity to strengthen structured youth representation across the country.

The council is expected to provide a platform through which young people can organise, elect representatives and articulate their interests through established institutional channels.

Registration goes online

The newly launched portal will allow young people to register as voters and nominate candidates ahead of the polls.

The process will also incorporate manual support, with the government describing the election as technology-first but hybrid, allowing digital systems to work alongside manual processes.

The hybrid model is intended to accommodate young people who may face challenges accessing or using the online platform while maintaining a technology-led registration and electoral process.

Fikirini called on young people to take advantage of the registration window and participate not only as voters but also as candidates.

He said increased youth participation in leadership would give young people a greater opportunity to influence policies and decisions affecting them while contributing to national development.

The government is also expected to intensify civic education and mobilisation as the October elections approach, with national and county structures being deployed to support awareness and participation.

For the thousands of young Kenyans eligible to participate, the process offers an opportunity to shape the leadership of a council whose elections have not been held since 2012.