Kenya

Social Media Listening Analysis – Uchaguzi Bila Balaa – Kenya – October 2022

Social media platforms emerged as fertile grounds to amplify politically instigated hate speech, disinformation, misinformation and manipulation around the Kenya 2022 elections. In this context, Search for Common Ground (Search) in collaboration with the Human Rights Agenda (HURIA), Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), Kiunga Youth Bunge Initiative (KYBI), Tana River Peace, Reconciliation and Development (TRPRD) and Ijara Women for Peace established an Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) system through embedded community observation and social media listening, with the aim to harness the shared information between communities, civil society organizations, and government authorities to identify and address imminent threats to peaceful elections, particularly looking at conflict trends, drivers and locations that could potentially trigger or experience violence. In partnership with Build Up, social media listening monitored online conversations, with a focus on Facebook and TikTok, to track hate speech, disinformation and misinformation trends and how these could potentially affect conflicts offline.

The social media monitoring on Facebook and TikTok revealed multiple harmful online narratives. These narratives mainly focused on collective polarization, manifesting as electoral divisions along ethnic and racial lines, targeting political competitors with inflammatory content, and attacks on institutional legitimacy portrayed as electoral misconduct. Women candidates particularly were disproportionately targeted with hate online that would sexualize them and attack their families and social status. After election day, the online information monitored in our process shifted from previous insults to disinformation about the counting and tallying activities and the results that were coming in on mainstream media.

The report concludes with a number of recommendations for different target audiences such as civil society and tech companies.

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Baseline – Uchaguzi Bila Bilaa: Violence Free Elections in Coastal Kenya – July 2022

In post-independent Kenya, violence has been a defining feature of election periods. In light of the increased risk of election-related violence before, during and after the 2022 Kenyan Elections, Search for Common Ground (Search) and its partner organisations (Human Rights Agenda (HURIA), Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), Kiunga Youth Bunge Initiative (KYBI), Ijara Women for Peace, Tana River Peace, Reconciliation and Development Organisation (TRPRD) began implementation of an 18-month European Union-funded programme.

This programme works together with local-level actors, empowering them to serve as an early warning and intervention mechanism in order to strengthen resilience to election-related violence during the critical electioneering periods, both in the campaign and after the elections have been conducted. The project targets Garissa, Lamu, Tana River, Kilifi, Kwale and Mombasa counties, aiming to respond to increasing election-related tensions and conflicts which often fuel violence and can lead to increases in radicalisation and recruitment by violent extremist organizations.

The baseline findings suggest that:

  1. While support for election-related violence is relatively low, there is a need to address attitudes and beliefs that lead to violence in the target counties.
  2. The spread of propaganda and hate speech, especially via social media, remains a significant challenge to communities. Social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok) poses a far greater risk than the mainstream media in terms of spreading hate speech, incitement and propaganda that can cause violence.
  3. CSOs and CBOs play a key role in mobilizing people to engage in peaceful activities that promote social cohesion and peaceful co-existence among communities in the target counties.

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Final Evaluation – Inuka! Supporting Vulnerable Youth to Participate in Community Peace and Security Efforts in Coastal Kenya – August 2021

The “Inuka! Supporting Vulnerable Youth to Participate in Community Peace and Security Efforts in Coastal Kenya” project (January 2018 – May 2021) was funded by the European Commission and implemented by Search for Common Ground in partnership with Kiunga Youth Bunge Initiative (KYBI), Human Rights Agenda (HURIA), Humanity Action Knowledge Integrity in Africa (HAKI Africa) and Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI). The overall aim of the project was to increase the effectiveness and inclusiveness of community peace and security efforts involving vulnerable and marginalized youth in the Kilifi, Kwale, Lamu and Mombasa counties in coastal Kenya.

In efforts to achieve this aim, the Common Ground Approach was mainstreamed in three pathways:
1. Capacity building, coordination and networking activities for community based youth and youth groups
2. Outreach and media activities involving adults about the potential of at-risk youth to positively contribute to peace and security
3. Action-oriented initiatives to increase resilience to conflict in the communities.

The project strengthened the capacity of and coordination among community-based youth groups and led to increased participation of youth (including at-risk youth) in peace & security efforts, thus giving youth an active “voice”. The outreach and media activities increased awareness of target communities of the potential of at-risk youth to positively contribute to peace and security. Various engagements between youth and security actors, in particularly in maskanis, improved their relationship and increased community trust. Some of the unintended outcomes of the project were stigma reduction among vulnerable/marginalized youth and helping to bring solutions to some socio-economic issues like assisting youth access to Mvuvi cards, special smart identification cards with enhanced security features for fishermen.

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Conflict Snapshot – Kenya – Working Together Against Corona – July 2021

This snapshot report was prepared by the Search for Common Ground Kenya team in July 2021. It is the third Kenya snapshot report prepared as part of Search’s global Working Together Against Corona programme, funded by the European Union.

Building on the two previous reports, the snapshot identifies key trends, compared across time, at the intersection of COVID-19, social cohesion, community trust, and inter-group conflict and presents practical recommendations to address these challenges.

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INUKA! Courage and Hope in Coastal Kenya

Local conflict can have dire consequences in coastal regions of Kenya, where violent extremist groups such as al-Shabaab prey on community grievances to attract recruits. Young people are often caught in the crosshairs, searching for an economic foothold in an elder-dominated world. As frustrations mount, so does the appeal of violence.

Our project Inuka! (“Rise!” in Swahili) works with young people to resolve local conflicts before any violence. With funding from the European Union, we have supported groups such as Angaza Youth Initiative that enlist young people to identify and address community needs. The legacy of Inuka! is a cohort of people across coastal Kenya, united in a mission of peacebuilding.

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Conflict Snapshot – Kenya – Working Together Against Corona – April 2021

This snapshot report was prepared by the Search for Common Ground Kenya team in April 2021. It is the second Kenya snapshot report prepared as part of Search’s global Working Together Against Corona programme, funded by the European Union.

The snapshot identifies key trends, compared across time since the first snapshot report, at the intersection of COVID-19, social cohesion, community trust, and inter-group conflict and presents practical recommendations to address these challenges.

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Conflict Snapshot – Kenya – Working Together Against Corona – December 2020

This snapshot report was prepared by the Search for Common Ground Kenya team in December 2020 as part of Search’s global Working Together Against Corona programme, funded by the European Union.

The snapshot identifies key trends at the intersection of COVID-19, social cohesion, community trust, and inter-group conflict and presents practical recommendations to address these challenges.

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