The Kenya general election in August will see the country get a new president, either AZIMO’s Raila Odinga, or UDA’s William Ruto.
As most people have noted, the choice of deputy president (DP) has really changed the voting arithmetic. Ruto chose Rigathi Gachagua, while Raila chose Martha Karua as DP.
Suddenly, it has become a contest between Clean Team versus Corrupt team.
This is what Karua said in Meru recently: “You should be keen not to elect leaders who have a tainted past. Our promise is to fix the economy by fighting corruption and dealing with the corrupt.”
Opinion polls after DP choices were announced have shown that Raila/Karua is more popular than Ruto/Rigathi. And that popularity is climbing.
In Mt Kenya region, where UDA has supposedly been very popular, opinion polls have shown Karua is more popular there, than Rigathi.
UDA has become popular in Mt Kenya region, not because of anything they have done for the region, but because of pro-UDA propaganda spread there by certain shadowy people on the ground.
These same shadowy “Kikuyu”, “Embu” & “Meru” have also dominated social media discussions on Facebook, Twitter etc.
Now that entry of Karua has created excitement in the Mountain region, Kikuyu, Embu, Meru on social media, who support AZIMIO, have become re-invigorated.
Yesterday, I checked Twitter account of a Mountain blogger who supports AZIMIO. His account had been SUSPENDED.
I then checked Twitter account of 2nd Mountain blogger who supports AZIMIO. His account had been SUSPENDED.
I checked Twitter account of 3rd Mountain blogger who supports AZIMIO. His account had been SUSPENDED.
I then checked Twitter account of 4th Mountain blogger who supports AZIMIO. His account had been SUSPENDED.
I also checked 4 accounts of Mountain bloggers who support UDA. NONE had been SUSPENDED.
This is very shocking.
Social media is a very important part of elections, because there are millions of Kenyans on social media.
Social media companies are known to practice what is known as Shadow-Banning.
How does this Shadow-Banning work? I will use an example to explain.
Suppose 2 people, John & Mary join Twitter on the same day. They have zero followers. Then they start tweeting.
Even if authenticity and logic of their tweets are the same, Twitter may show John’s tweet to 1,000 people, while showing Mary’s tweet to only 1 other person.
If this is repeated many times, John’s followers grow, while Mary’s remain very few.
This tactic is also done by other Social media companies like Facebook.
This Shadow-Banning is usually done to push a certain agenda.
In the Kenyan case, they generally Shadow-Ban most users from the Mountain, who do not support UDA.
This is so that, the undecided voters from the Mountain, who are on social media can also join UDA, believing that it is the “party everyone else from our region (on social media) is supporting”.
Why is this Shadow-Banning of Kenyans on social media mostly focused on Mountain people? Because of 2 reasons:
(a) The way UDA party was established, it rode on the wave of what was supposedly “a revolt in Mt Kenya against the status quo”.
This argument couldn’t work with other communities.
This “revolt” was also pushed aggressively on social media, by accounts that were favoured by those companies, as their opponents got Shadow-Banned.
UDA needs at least 70% of Mountain vote for them to have any chance of winning presidency.
Recent events have made this impossible, hence escalation into suspending pro-AZIMO Mountain accounts, in addition to Shadow-Banning others.
(b) If they Shadow-Banned people from all communities who do not support UDA, it would be so obvious, and many people would know what is going on.
They are very cunning, and cannot make that mistake.
Solution
Since powerful social media companies already support one side in the coming elections, and are aggressively Shadow-Banning and kicking out people who do not support that side, what should Kenyans do?
NOTE: This election will make or break Kenya.
It is a clear case of People who will EAT Kenya vs People who will SAVE Kenya.
This hashtag #MwiziAuMkombozi makes it clear about what choices voters have.
Kenyans need to have a fall-back plan.
There needs to be online sites, owned by Kenyans, where people can debate local issues, without threat of being Shadow-Banned, or getting banned.
Between 2004-2012, there were very vibrant Kenyan online communities, in various discussion forums, owned by patriotic Kenyans.
However, “coincidentally”, all these sites died (or were they killed?).
Later on, some shadowy “Kenyans” created online forums, which have also been used to push anti-Kenya agenda.
4 years ago, I wrote on Reddit that Kenyans need to revive these vibrant online communities.
Long story short – I was banned from reddit.
That is when I realised what was going on.
Tanzania has a thriving and vibrant discussion forum. Why can’t Kenyans also have such forums?
If we do not have places where we can discuss current issues openly, and push pro-Kenya agenda, then the pro-corruption side will dominate online debate, and their party will win election.
If you know of a discussion forum run by patriotic Kenyans, publicise its url address to as many people as possible. Encourage people to take their debate there.
I have also created one site, for use by anyone – https://sasaforum.com/
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UKWELI 