Intense heat from the controversial August 9 General Election may have cooled off but a wide array of political actors has created strong narratives aiming to dominate the ensuing public discourse.
Political parties, analysts, agents, voters and non-voters alike have all stormed social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to express their view and assert their position on the integrity of the election.
The IEBC has been at helm of hilarious memes, political analyses and, some worrying and unverified clickbait stories. Whether their operations have been transparent or "opaque" remains the Supreme Court's decision to make.
What is evident is that use of social media for agenda-setting in this election was real - almost confirming the dictum that "the man with the best story rules the world."
Whether you are a "hustler" or a fan of "Azimio" or part of the Wajackoyah revolution, it is no secret that this election has moved the hearts and minds of many Kenyans.
Despite the low voter turnout countrywide, a number of Kenyans, locally or in the diaspora, went online to share their views or participate in discussions around the election.
The differentiator, however, was the nature of the content shared. The Kenyan election shocked many East Africans and even more at the Sub-Saharan level because this election -unlike 2017- allowed anyone, globally, with an internet connection and a calculator to access the presidential results from the IEBC portal and tally them.
For this reason, nearly everyone was able to table some numbers in conversations as to who between Deputy President William Ruto and Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga would be crowned "the fifth" president of the Republic of Kenya ahead of the official announcement by the IEBC.
Besides, media houses tallied own results at varying intervals of progression, creating suspicion among Kenyans that media houses were under the control of either the "deep state" or "the hustlers".
Despite the IEBC's well-intentioned bid for transparency, the mass confusion and hysteria that followed the announcement of the results prevailed even at the sub-national levels.
The gubernatorial races in Homabay, Nairobi and Kirinyaga, for instance, saw candidates and political party bloggers run to social media to "thank God" for giving their candidates victory, based on their own tallying -- only to find that the situation on the ground was different.
This was followed by a flurry of memes that questioned the role of God in the election. It was surprising that even the Roots Party Candidate Prof George Wajackoyah who had throughout trailed in the polls, continued holding on to the hope that he would be declared the winner of the Presidential election. He ultimately got less than 1 per cent of the total votes cast in the election.
The fact that anxiety was high at all levels of voting also caused a tough monitoring situation for election observers at both the national and international levels. All parties keenly followed the voting to avoid false or sensational reporting that would damage Kenya's already fragile image on being capable of holding free and fair elections.
The current landscape foresees a situation in which all eyes are now fixated on the Supreme court. IEBC vice-chair Juliana Cherara and three other commissioners have openly came out to distance themselves from the presidential elections results announced by chairman Wafula Chebukati, deeming the process as "opaque" and unverifiable.
Ms Cherera cited the controversial additional 0.01per cent difference in the total number of votes Mr Chebukati announced at the end of the exercise. An intense numbers debate and memes ensued on social media turning nearly every participant into a mathematician for the next couple of days.
Kenyans, who were political analysts before the election, party agents and returning officers on election days immediately transformed into mathematicians and lawyers in a robust and hilarious bid to do the math and produce results.
That effort produced popular Hashtags such as #Kenyadecides2022 #Chebukati, #the5th #Cherera #Ruto, #Baba, #Hustler and #DeepState.
If one was to deconstruct the twitter threads from these hashtags it would be clear that Kenyans have taken politics to heart rather than keeping it at the intellectual level.
As the election cycle enters the next phase in the corridors of justice, one can only expect that these social pressures will persists, especially in the social media space. What is lacking in all this is the propensity of Kenyans to seek some level of verification for information circulating on social media - to separate fake news from the truth. For ultimately, all Kenyans deserve a free, and fair election.
Apondi is a final Year Diplomacy and Foreign Policy Major at USIU-AFRICA.
Email: tapondi@usiu.ac.ke or Mitchapondi723@gmail.com
