The impact of fake news in Kenya started earlier but culminated in 2007, when a disputed election led to Kenya’s worst post-election violence, in which the media was criticized for generating and sharing inciteful content, self-censorship, and biased reporting.
It was so bad that Journalist, Joshua Sang’, was one of six people charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The media is no longer regarded as an entirely reliable source.
According to the most current quantitative data from a GeoPoll study conducted for Internews as part of this research, 60% of Kenyans “don’t entirely” trust the media. Furthermore, partisanship in the media, as represented in ownership, management, and editorial decisions, has been highlighted as a major barrier to confidence in the media.
The rise of false news, which largely lives online, has contributed to some of this mistrust. As a result, Kenya had a highly contentious electioneering season between August and October of 2017.
Kenya suffers from severe tribal polarization, a consequence of the British colonial policy of “divide and rule” that has been continued post-independence by African-led governments. This typically peaks around pre-election and election seasons.
Fake news and hate speech in the media surged dramatically in 2017, and this tendency has since continued.
In fact, the biggest challenge encountered by Safaricom, the largest mobile service provider with over 26 million members, in 2017 was the sheer volume of fake news passing through their networks.
The problem is so widespread that many organizations including StopReflectVerify have been formed solely to combat false news.