Kenyans upbeat on benefits of social media but wary of abuse

Often, the citizens would be kept in the dark on damning cases in both the public and private sectors.

The loophole enabled crooked officials to conceal scandalous information with ease.

When social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter came, access to the hidden information became easy.

Now, the public could post or access critical information with a click of a button unencumbered.

This instilled accountability among high-ranking officials who feared being exposed.

Were it not for the media, a myriad of scandals would have slipped under the rug. As a result, support for social media platforms among Kenyans is very high.

According to the latest report by the Pan-African survey company Afrobarometer, eight in every 10 (80 per cent) Kenyans support digital media reporting on government’s misdeeds and corruption.

“Only a quarter (19 per cent) think that negative reporting will harm than cure the country,” the Afrobarometer report shows.

Mobile phones

This comes at a time when Kenya leads the region in terms of mobile phones access.

A 2020 Airtel Africa report showed that the percentage of people owning mobile phones in Kenya stands at 62 per cent.

Kenya’s unique mobile penetration is the highest in the region, ahead of Zambia (54 per cent), Tanzania (49 per cent), Nigeria (45 per cent), Uganda (42 per cent) and Democratic Republic of Congo (39 per cent).

The uptake of smartphones has been aided by the entry of affordable Chinese smartphones such as Infinix, Oppo, Techno and Redmi. Some of the made-in-China smartphones retail as low as Sh3,000.

A report by Jumia Business Intelligence and GSMA Mobile titled ‘White Paper 2017’ found that smartphone penetration in Kenya had grown to more than 60 per cent of the population over the past five years thanks to the influx of affordable phones.

Another factor fuelling access to information is affordable Internet that some few years back cost an arm and a leg.

A report released last year by a technology think tank, Research ICT Africa found that Kenya was among countries with affordable Internet.

The report revealed that Tanzania charges the lowest in East Africa at Sh218 per gigabyte, followed by Rwanda at Sh220, Kenya at Sh244, Uganda at Sh273 and Burundi at Sh302 as of September 2019.

Media censorship

The price is higher in countries such as Sierra Leone (Sh656) and Togo (Sh848), and some of the most expensive data across the continent were in West Africa — for example, Guinea-Bissau (Sh1,695), Chad (Sh1187) and Mauritania (Sh978).

Kenyans are, however, divided on media censorship.

Whereas a half (56 per cent) say the media should be allowed to publish without the government’s consent, nearly 40 per cent prefer censorship.

Media freedom in the country has been through thick and thin. For example, in the 1990s and early 2000s, media independence in Kenya was limited.

The State-owned Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) acted as its mouthpiece and rarely it criticised the government.

Fair coverage

It was not until the 2000s when media freedom grew after the government liberalised the airwaves and licensed television stations such as the Citizen TV and KTN as well as FM radio stations.

The Afrobarometer notes that two-thirds (72 per cent) of Kenyans believe that media freedoms exist in Kenya.

While half of the locals think the media do not provide fair coverage, 41 per cent think otherwise.

“Nine per cent said that they do not know or refused to answer,” reads part of the report.

False news has nonetheless emerged as the biggest threat to democracy with the media at the centre stage.

“The perpetrators cited most often are politicians and political parties (65 per cent), followed closely by social media users (60 per cent). About half blame government officials (51 per cent), the media (50 per cent), and activists and interest groups (46 per cent),” it shows.

Kenyans are nearly split between positive (54 per cent) and negative (24 per cent and neither positive nor negative (21 per cent) on the effect of digital media.

Respondents overwhelmingly say social media inform users about politics (88 per cent) and help empower people politically (73 per cent).

Similarly, they see social media as making people more likely to believe false information (75 per cent) and making users less tolerant of people whose political opinions differ from their own (64 per cent).