Saturday, January 14, 2012

When Facebook announced Baraza’s resignation



The story that has been Nancy Baraza and her now famous visit to the Village Market has brought out the true character of social media. It is fast, fluid, borderless and often explosive, write JEVANS NYABIAGE and TIMOTHY MACHI

... "BARAZA RESIGNS!" read a headline to a post on County411 — one of the most active, even rancorous Facebook walls in the country.
"Baraza has bowed to pressure and resigned. Truphena Baraza, a maid in Umoja resigned today citing pressure from the economy and poor salary. She left behind a note saying she has gone back to Bungoma..."
The story, made of two sentences of not more than 45 words, was pregnant with suspense.
Simple and perhaps innocent to the uninitiated, its import captures the nature of what social media has increasingly become — uncensored, egalitarian, vain, classless, borderless and even fearless.
Such has been the banter on social media that characterised debate surrounding the Deputy Chief Justice Nancy Baraza and her woes at the not-so-rural Village Market.
Since last week, Lady Justice Nancy Baraza, also Vice President Supreme Court, has ruled the social media as Kenya and the world discussed her conduct described in the blogosphere as dishonourable, unfortunate and even arrogant.
It is reported that on the eve of the New Year at the high-end shopping mall in the upmarket Gigiri Area — Ms Baraza was involved in a spat with a security guard.
It is alleged that the Deputy Chief Justice (DJC) brandished a pistol at the guard —Rebecca Kerubo.
According to Kerubo, Baraza declined to be searched as she went to pick medicine from a pharmacy situated at the mall.
Kerubo allegedly earned Ms Baraza’s wrath when she insisted on searching the DCJ’s bag as part of security procedures for all shoppers entering the mall.
The incident generated considerable public debate with the story literally going viral on social networking sites — Twitter and Facebook.
Before traditional media — newspapers, TV and radio — picked the story, it was up in the blogosphere, of course with several distortions to it.
And the entire week, online platforms and blogospheres were jammed with all manner of allegations, insinuations and accusations. The news spread fast, finding its way to international media such as Reuters and BBC.
By the time newspapers were posting the story on websites hours after the initial post on Twitter and Facebook and print versions almost 24 hours later, the blogosphere was threading with thousands of angry reactions ranging from the lucid to the outright puerile.
trending subject
News that Kerubo had quit her job as a result of the standoff only served to inflame the social media with people demanding that Ms Baraza resigns as a matter of principle.
Typing the phrase ‘Kenya gun’ in Google search engine reveals that Nancy Baraza is the most talked about subject in Kenya. Baraza is the subject in the first three topics — Trials and triumphs of Nancy Baraza by the East African, FIDA defends Baraza over gun drama by Capital FM and Kenyan police probe deputy chief justice gun threat by Stabroek News.
She also racks up another five topics in Google’s top 10 listing in the search engine, eclipsing the threat of guns that have been selling in open markets in certain city estates.
Until this incident, it was the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations that was trending as Kenyans on Twitter attempted to make guesses on the questions that have been designed to mould our "leaders of tomorrow".
At the time, #KCPE2010 was actually listed in the top 3 of Trending Topics on Twitter globally for a few hours as Twitter.
Kenya’s presumably first trending topics were #raila and #uhurupark, which coincided with the promulgations of the country’s new Constitution on September 2010.
With the latest saga, #nancybaraza becomes the fourth topic in local Kenya to trend.
Twitter’s trending topics algorithm identifies subjects that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the "most breaking" news stories from across the world.
Topics that capture the hottest emerging trends and subjects of discussion on Twitter are the most interesting.
Locally, Nancy Baraza remains the most discussed topic online in major Kenyan blogs. Some blogs have manipulated Ms Baraza’s photos to illustrate her not-so-public talents.
A blogger on Nairobi Wire captures what has become of Ms Baraza in more graphical details. "Some people have decided to immortalise her with action-packed photo-shopped images."
These images, laden with crude humour, are already doing the rounds on the Internet.
On Twitter and Facebook, angry users have circulated Ms Baraza’s private cell phone number, calling people to send her text messages asking her whether she harassed the guard.
Online groups have since been formed to push for her resignation. One such group, Nancy Must Go on www.gopetition.com says "Hon. Nancy Barasa, Deputy CJ and Deputy President Supreme Court of Kenya Must Resign to Restore the Integrity of our Judiciary."
The group’s drive to impeach Ms Baraza draws its philosophy from two quotes on its website.
Online petitions
"Your greatness is measured by your kindness; your education and intellect by your modesty; your ignorance is betrayed by your suspicions and prejudices, and your real calibre is measured by the consideration and tolerance you have for others," attributed to William J.H. Boetcker, a religious leader.
In the second quote, the group seems to characterise Ms Baraza’s portrait. "If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals," attributed to J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Many similar groups have emerged on Facebook and Twitter demanding that Ms Baraza steps down to pave way for investigations.
Social media platforms have proven to be great tools for meeting up with friends, keeping in touch with far flung relatives, but apparently it is also pretty good at bringing down regimes and careers.
Social media id explosive, disruptive and spreads faster than bushfire, enabling hundreds of millions of citizens to publish, share, comment and upload media to a more dynamic online environment.
In 2008, then Illinois first term Senator Barack Obama rode the wave of social media to win US presidential elections.
The same platform has been used to topple autocratic regimes in North Africa and Middle East—in what has come to be known as the Twitter/Facebook revolution.

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