By OTIENO OTIENO, jkotieno@ke.nationmedia.com (email the author)
Posted Saturday, August 28 2010 at 13:21
Martha Karua, the Iron Lady of Kenyan politics, has found new love: tweeting.
By Friday, the Gichugu MP who has presidential ambitions in 2012 had sent out 249 tweets (short updates) to her 1,880 followers on twitter, the social networking site popular with young professionals.
Friday was also perhaps her busiest day on twitter, giving a blow-by-blow account of events at Uhuru Park where President Kibaki promulgated the new Constitution.
Colleagues following the ceremony from the newsroom on TV thought Ms Karua had assigned an aide to tweet for her until the cameras zoomed in on her giving assistant minister Kilemi Mwiria a few tips on her phone.
By time the ceremony ended in the afternoon, she had posted more than 30 tweets from the dais.
Most of her tweets either captured the euphoric mood or reflected her deep patriotic feelings.
My favourite came at the tail end: "ceremony now coming to a close this truly a great day let us all build one Kenya, one nation, one people!"
This was no idle indulgence of a politician seeking to kick boredom.
Ms Karua knows a thing or two the traditional Kenyan politician is clueless about: 2012 could be the year the virtual community of the worldwide web becomes a serious alternative to the big stadium in the city, the village open ground or TV talk show as a campaign arena.
People aged below 40 form 58.8 per cent of the registered voters in Kenya currently.
This is the demographic that is most active on the Internet, least tribalised and most likely to fall for ideas over gender.
Studies of elections elsewhere suggest that young people have been behind the success of reformers, outsiders or what Dan Gillmor calls “insurgent campaigns” in his book, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People.
The strength of the Obama campaign was widely believed to be its smart use of the Internet to mobilise an army of young supporters and volunteers, raise money and get people out to vote.
The election of the reformist president Roh Moo Hyun in South Korea in 2002 has also been linked to his being Internet-savvy.
In Kenya, Ms Karua appears to be the most credible outsider going to 2012.
It’s too early to tell if her campaign will benefit significantly from social networking given that she will be up against the rockstar appeal of Raila Odinga, the old money of Uhuru Kenyatta and other forces.
But Kenyans will certainly be taking notice as Ms Karua courts us on twitter and other online forums. Tweet, Martha, tweet.
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