Kenya Reports

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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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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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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Policy Brief – Youth Participation in Peace and Security Processes in Kenya’s Coast Region – November 2020

This policy brief series highlights youth efforts for peace and the importance of their participation in peace and security processes in the coastal region of Kenya. It discusses some of the challenges facing youth in peace and security efforts and raises policy recommendations for how youth could be better engaged in these processes in Kenya’s coastal region and beyond, while taking into account the unique contexts and institutional mechanisms present in the region.

The policy brief is based on a series of Youth, Peace and Security Roundtables hosted under Search for Common Ground’s Inuka! project with support from the European Union, as well as interactions with diverse civil society organisations, youth-led organisations, Youth, Peace and Security activists, youth leaders and influencers, elected political leaders, and policy analysts, among others.

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Power mapping – Jamii Bila Balaa: Strengthening the role of families and community influencers to prevent recruitment into VE groups in Garissa and Tana River Counties, Kenya – November 2019

Jamii Bila Balaa: Strengthening the role of families and community influencers to prevent recruitment into violent extremism groups is a 24-month project implemented by Search in partnership with two local NGOs: Ijara Women for Peace (IJW) and Tana River Peace Reconciliation and Development (TRPRD) in Garissa and Tana River Counties, Kenya. The project started in September 2018 and is funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism (DOS CT).

Extensive research has been conducted in the country, especially on push and pull factors of violent extremism (VE). While knowledge of overarching push and pull factors, such as unemployment, corruption, drug trafficking, etc. is critical to understand drivers of violent extremism, an in-depth understanding of stakeholders and community members who have the power to influence others’ decisions to participate in violent extremist groups is needed to inform more effective programming addressing this issue.

In response to this need, Search for Common Ground (Search), in partnership with Ijara Women for Peace (IJW) and Tana River Peace, Reconciliation, and Development (TRPRD) conducted research to map the power dynamics, communication channels, and relevant actors that drive and prevent violent extremism in Garissa and Tana River Counties, two major at-risk areas for violent extremism in Kenya. The report gives a detailed account of power dynamics, their capacities and limitations in addressing violent extremism, existing state and non state actors that can be leveraged to transform violent extremism and the appropriate media spaces, messages, tools and formats that can be used to extend narratives of pluralism, strength in diversity and non violence in the target Counties.

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