IEBC worried as aspirants, voters take to the social media

By Oscar Obonyo

KENYA: It has recently been credited for influencing the revolution in the Middle East and North African countries of Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Libya, and Algeria.  Now the social media is generating enough political heat back home.

Officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), and political parties are already running scared. While appreciating the role of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media avenues in relaying poll results, IEBC chairman Isaak Hassan is particularly worried about information distortion.

Chairman of the ODM Elections Board Franklin Bett, in particular, attributes chaos witnessed across the country during the recent party nominations to deliberate misinformation on the social media.

Social media

The Roads minister claims rivals may have infiltrated through the social media to deliberately post erroneous information, “well aware it would inflame the situation”.

A case, he says, is a posting on Twitter claiming the Bett team had issued Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s sister, Ruth, with a nomination certificate to run for Kisumu County governor’s seat.

As expected, a section of residents reacted angrily to the “news” by burning tyres along the highways. Similarly, initial reports on Facebook indicating that William Oduol had carried the day in the Siaya County gubernatorial race poisoned the ground. This was even before the conclusion of the exercise.

Chaotic primaries

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s The National Alliance (TNA) had an equal share of the ugly drama with initial reports on social media that former Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu had been denied the TNA ticket for governor’s seat in Nairobi owing to his streetwise style of politics. Instead, according the tweets, the ticket had been handed to investment banker Jimnah Mbaru.

As expected, Waititu’s supporters momentarily greeted the “shocking reports” with riots. TNA officials have also blamed the social media for partly fuelling the short-lived impasse between TNA Othaya constituency aspirants, Mary Wambui and Gichuki Mugambi. And owing to initial conflicting Facebook postings on whether Wambui had been denied the ticket, the politician’s supporters took to the streets on Tuesday. The March 4 General Election, says Hassan, is a sensitive and monumental exercise that cannot be left at the mercy of individual cell phone and Internet users. To avoid inflaming passions, the IEBC boss stresses the need to relay accurate and uniform results. Towards this end, the electoral body has made arrangements to serve the media with a link to their tallying centre.  

Hate speech

While appreciating the freedom of speech and information flow, Information PS Bitange Ndemo warns that social media is a double-edged sword that needs to be handled cautiously ahead of the March 4 elections.

Besides deliberate misinformation, which Ndemo fears could get heightened during vote tallying, the PS also points a finger at blogs and social media sites from where hate messages are spread.

But Henry Maina, Director of Article 19, eastern Africa, argues that social media only but provides space for debate on various issues and users should also verify the information.

He attributes part of the problem to select incidents of inaccurate and reporting by the media. He says that growing lack of faith in mainstream media, coupled with poor information flow from Government agencies, have helped social media to thrive.

“On one hand is the challenge of objective coverage of the electoral news and results, while on the other is the scenario of a country still beholden on keeping secrets,” says Maina, who heads the regional body committed to promotion of free speech. 

Claiming that some of the hate speech ahead of the botched 2007 presidential election was traced to Kenyans in the Diaspora, Ndemo says the Government is making arrangements to partner with Interpol to track those spreading hate messages.

And speaking exclusively to The Standard from Baltimore, US, last September, the chairman of NCIC Mzalendo Kibunjia said those misusing social media would be prosecuted.

“Distance doesn’t matter anymore. Wherever you are in the world, if you engage in hate speech, technology now exists for us to smoke you out. This is the message we have brought to the Diaspora,” he said.

However, Maina regards the social media as a key asset to freedom of speech and catalyst of democratization.  He observes that use of the communication technology helps surmount geographical challenges.

It is foolhardy, he observes, to claim that social media caused the mayhem in the recently concluded party primaries. He argues that social media played a complementary role to the mainstream media, in ensuring minimal electoral mischief. 

“The very nature of political expression is to exploit gaps in the rivals’ strategy. While it is expected for people to tweet what is favourable to their political standing, it is upon the consumers of such information, particularly the mainstream media, to verify the same,” says Maina.