Contesting democracy in the digital age: Disinformation, hate speech, and technology-enabled security threats during Kenya’s 2022 general elections

Abstract

Social media use during elections has laid bare the opportunities and risks it portends for democracy and peace, especially for many consolidating democracies in Africa, such as Kenya. While digital democracy, defined as “the use of digital media in political and governance processes” has expanded the democratic space through increased participation, the digital space has also been used to spread disinformation and hate messages and have polarized populations and exacerbate the potential for conflict, particularly in charged political processes like elections. Interrogating Kenya’s 2022 General Election, this article aims at unpacking digital democracy as a tool that could threaten peace prior, during and after elections. It sought to answer three questions: How did disinformation polarize the electorate during Kenya’s 2022 General Elections? How did hate messages polarize the electorate and threaten peace during Kenya’s 2022 General Elections? How successful was government in regulating/sanctioning digital democracy violators during Kenya’2022 elections? Theoretically, this article is anchored in digital participatory democracy, and biased towards a qualitative approach. It adopted a case study design, and targeted University of Eldoret students and their peers, purposely targeted as youthful and most active users of social media. Primary data used was based on an online google form questionnaire deployed in August-September 2023, which attracted 311 respondents, an email e-mail questionnaire (7 responses), key informant online interviews (2 responses) and two (2) focus group discussions (FDGs). Key informant interviews targeting government officials especially from criminal justice system and findings corroborated with secondary academic and grey literature. It concludes that elections being very emotive and disputed in Kenya means digital democracy is a double-edged sword and has the potential to threaten peace during charged political contests, and where online polarization and hatred may manifest offline as real violence. Acknowledging the delicate balancing act of government in regulating digital democracy without curtailing individual freedoms, this article calls for sensitization on responsibilities of various actors in the digital space, with a view to harness digital democracy through responsible use of social media.