Unlike the 2013 and 2017 General Elections that were to a large extent influenced by campaigns basing on manifestos and coercion by the politicians running for different elective seats, the August 2022 General Elections are turning out to be totally different and may be largely influenced by unverified and skewed social media messages flying across different platforms.
According to Constitution and Reform Education Consortium – CRECO, over half of the over 22 million registered voters will make their decision in the August 9th elections basing on the pictures, videos and unverified messages received on their social media platforms with the intention of wooing and influencing them towards different political groupings.
CRECO Executive Director Joshua Changwony claims that if the voters are not educated and sensitized on the impact of misinformation and disinformation ahead of the forthcoming elections, then there is a likelihood that over 50 per cent of the voters may make wrong decisions on who to vote for after being influenced by the images and videos and messages that they received on their social media platforms without verification.
“If there shall not be proper voter civic education ahead of the August General Elections, then at least 50 per cent of the voters will make wrong decisions in electing their leaders as a result of the messages they received on their social media accounts that might have wrongly influenced them to make their political decisions,” said Changwony.
He added that currently there is a wave of misinformation and disinformation in the country and is greatly affecting the Kenyans understanding of the arrangements that have been put in place by different bodies in terms of ensuring that the elections are credible, free and fair hence many Kenyans may make the wrong decision.
Jacinta Nyambura a programs officer at CRECO explains that misinformation is sharing information that is false and inaccurate mistakenly while disinformation is when one shares information that is false and inaccurate intentionally with an intent to hurt or with malicious intent.
Misinformation and Disinformation a Global Issue
However, the two officers reveal that disinformation and misinformation is not exclusively a Kenyan affair but it has become a global crisis that the world is grappling with as more ways and measures are being sought to manage and control the wave that is sweeping across the globe like bush fire.
Nyambura reveals that statistics across the World reveal that misinformation and disinformation has already had great impacts in other countries during elections whereby voters in affected countries voted based on the information they received on social media as opposed to what the politicians told them in the campaigns physically.
“If not tackled or stopped and there is not enough awareness created, it has a very high probability that it can skew or distort the social order and even influence voters’ decisions adversely,” said Nyambura.
She noted that such scenarios have been witnessed in other countries in the World like in Europe and America citing the 2018 General Elections in Brazil that was termed a ‘WhatsApp-driven’ election that propelled one of the candidates to presidency and thus can still happen in Kenya.
Many politicians and coalitions in Kenya’s 2022 elections campaigns have embarked on influencing the voters through skewed messages to pass an impression that they are either having a huge following or are the people’s choice come August 9th elections and many Kenyans have unknowingly fallen into the trap.
Changwony and Nyambura noted the serious impact of disinformation and the levels at which it is cutting across the social fabric in Kenya and other countries citing the America’s elections and other countries in Europe warning that concerted efforts should be put in place to educate and sensitize people to beware of this misleading wave of communication.
CRECO Calls on Stakeholders to Tackle the Issue
The consortium now calls on Kenyans to be wary of messages forwarded to them on social media and be verifying and cross checking before forwarding further so that they are not agents of propagating the lies and misinformation as intended by the originators of such information.
Changwony notes that no Kenyan or institution has been spared by the misinformation and disinformation wave in the country ranging from media personalities or media houses, the judiciary, the electoral body among other stakeholders especially those related to the preparations of the forthcoming General Elections.
“This misinformation and disinformation are a new thing and is evolving daily and is very dangerous and therefore we need to have these discussions more often, get all the stakeholders on board, the telcos, the policy makers in this country, the CSOs, the media and everyone who is a key player on the table to chat the best way forward,” added Nyambura.
CRECO is now on the front-line of educating and sensitizing Kenyans on the matter of misinformation and disinformation and calls upon other stakeholders including civil society and government agencies to join in the bandwagon to bring Kenyans to the realization that the wave has greater negative impact that many might imagine hence urgent and progressive measures should be put in place.
Media houses have also been urged to organize training for their journalists and presenters on how to detect fake news and how to debunk misinformation and disinformation whenever they come across not to become agents of spreading such information bearing in mind they are trusted by masses as far as mass communication is concerned.