The key issues in the debate were who would fund the deployment and what justifications there are for sending security forces to Haiti, thousands of miles from Kenya. Supporters of the motion said Kenya had a moral obligation and duty to aid Haiti. The heated debate saw opposition legislators reject government plans for Kenya to lead the multinational policing team in Haiti, saying it violated the country’s constitution. Even the debate in parliament is a brazen defiance of the laws of the country.”Įarlier, the Kenyan parliament approved a government motion from the Committee on Administration and Internal Security approving the government’s request to send the security officers as violence escalates in Haiti. Madung said it was not easy to measure the impact of the current wave of election-related disinformation because it is “hard to draw a line between disinformation and how Kenyans will vote offline”.īut "false and sometimes hateful content often goes viral – reaching millions of Kenyans – so it’s safe to say it is influencing how people think and feel about the August elections," he added.“President William Ruto’s government has a history of ignoring court decisions, but if it’s a law-abiding government, it will wait until the court makes the final decision. From the research we’ve carried out, this year will be no different,” he told AFP Fact Check. “The 2017 election, in particular, was rife with it – evidence shows that foreign outfits like Cambridge Analytica and Harris Media LLC spread carefully-crafted disinformation on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. Poll-related violence left dozens dead at the time. Madung said similar disinformation campaigns had also been run during Kenya’s last election in 2017. The contracted influencers spread politically-related propaganda and disinformation. He added that disinformation was growing more sophisticated, both in its substance and distribution channels.Ī recent investigation by AFP Fact Check revealed that politicians in Kenya hire young people with huge online followings to help them manipulate social media platforms’ algorithms so as to sway public opinion. “Kenya has practically been in campaign mode and a politically heightened mood since 2021 and that has correspondingly meant that disinformation on social media hasn’t been far behind,” said Odanga Madung of the Mozilla Foundation. Disinformation ‘reaching millions’Įxperts warn that false or misleading content across all social media platforms is on the rise in Kenya ahead of the much-anticipated summer election. In reality, the front page for March 26, 2022, ran a story entitled “Jubilee yavuna kuvuna”, which translates to “Jubilee party wins big”.Ī reverse image search found that the main headline and some pictures appearing on the page had been digitally manipulated. Screenshot showing the doctored front page, taken on May 31, 2022 The Facebook user who shared the claim expressed outrage at The Nairobian and its publisher Standard Group for running the purported article. The claim, first posted on Facebook on March 31, 2022, features a picture of Sofapaka chairman Elly Kalekwa alongside the headline “I slept with Rachel Ruto”. One example features a story about Ruto’s wife allegedly cheating on him with the owner of Kenyan football club Sofapaka. Several fake versions of its front pages have been circulating online in recent weeks. Those targeted in the disinformation campaign include the popular Kenyan weekly tabloid The Nairobian, which is published by the Standard Group. The contest is shaping up to be a two-horse race between the president's erstwhile ally and his deputy William Ruto and veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has Kenyatta’s backing.ĪFP Fact Check has already debunked several election-related claims, like the emergence of fake quotes attributed to politicians.Īnother tactic involves creating made-up newspaper headlines about candidates. On August 9, voters will choose a successor to President Uhuru Kenyatta who must stand down after serving the maximum two five-year terms. AFP Fact Check has rounded up doctored headlines designed to stir tensions among voters, as experts warn that disinformation in Kenya is growing more sophisticated.Īs election fever ramps up in Kenya, platforms like Facebook, Twitter and TikTok have entered the fray of political campaigns, with candidates vying for the support of the East African nation’s 12 million social media users. Cheating politicians’ wives, sex scandals, murder allegations – fake front pages of major Kenyan newspapers are proliferating on social media ahead of a high-stakes election set for August 2022.
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