Kenya must win election disinformation fight

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

As Kenya prepares for another General Election next year, the battle for State House is no longer confined to political rallies, television debates or newspaper headlines. It is taking place in WhatsApp groups, TikTok videos, Facebook posts, X threads and YouTube channels, where truth competes with fiction on an increasingly uneven playing field.

The greatest threat to Kenya's democracy may not be who wins the election. It may be whether voters are making decisions based on facts at all.

The rise of misinformation, disinformation and fake news has fundamentally altered political discourse around the world. In Kenya, where social media penetration has grown exponentially and smartphones have become ubiquitous even in remote villages, false information now spreads faster than official corrections.

Perhaps the most worrying aspect is not that lies are being created, it is that they are increasingly being believed. One only needs to travel to rural Kenya to witness the phenomenon. It is now common to find villagers passionately discussing sensational claims about politicians, election officials, government programmes or ethnic communities.

When asked where they obtained the information, the answer is often the same: "Nimeiona kwa social media (I saw it on social media)."

Never mind that the story was fabricated. Never mind that the accompanying video was edited.Never mind that the photograph was taken years ago in another country. Once information appears on a phone screen, many assume it must be true. That should worry everyone. False information they say, triggers fear, outrage or excitement, leading to faster sharing.

Former US President Joe Biden perhaps captured this challenge best during his farewell address at the White House when he warned that: "Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling.

Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families, and our very democracy from abuse of power."

His warning resonates far beyond the US. It speaks directly to Kenya.Kenya is no stranger to disinformation. During the 2017 General Election, researchers documented coordinated online campaigns that spread false narratives, manipulated ethnic sentiments and attacked political opponents.

Fabricated opinion polls, doctored images and misleading videos circulated widely across Facebook, Twitter (now X) and WhatsApp.

The 2022 elections were no different. Several organisations, including Africa Check, Code for Africa and Mozilla-backed researchers, documented hundreds of misleading claims relating to election results, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, candidates and election officials.

Fake tally sheets circulated online. Old videos of violence were re-posted as if they were occurring during voting. Photos were edited to suggest endorsements that never happened. Fabricated quotations were attributed to political leaders.

At one point, false information spread so rapidly that fact-checkers struggled to keep pace. The objective was rarely to convince everyone of a particular lie. Rather, it was to create confusion. When citizens no longer know what to believe, trust in institutions begins to collapse. That may be the ultimate goal.

If fake news was dangerous in 2022, it could become devastating in the coming election. Artificial intelligence (AI) has dramatically lowered the cost of deception.

Today, anyone with access to freely available AI tools can generate realistic images of politicians attending events they never attended. They can clone voices. They can create convincing videos of candidates saying words they never uttered.

Known as "deepfakes," these synthetic media products are becoming increasingly difficult to detect with the naked eye. Imagine receiving a WhatsApp audio recording that sounds exactly like a presidential candidate insulting a particular community. Or a video showing an election official announcing fake results. Or a fabricated speech apparently calling for violence.

Even if such content is later debunked, the damage may already have been done. Research consistently shows that corrections rarely travel as far or as fast as the original falsehood. The first impression often sticks.

Political campaigns are likely to exploit these technologies in increasingly sophisticated ways. Rather than simply attacking opponents, AI can be used to flood social media with thousands of personalised messages tailored to different audiences. Different communities could receive different versions of the same candidate. Micro-targeted propaganda may become the new campaign strategy.

This makes traditional fact-checking insufficient.

Social media has undoubtedly democratised access to information. It has given ordinary citizens a voice. It has enabled civic mobilisation. It has exposed corruption. Yet it has also become a fertile breeding ground for manipulation.

Algorithms reward outrage. False information often spreads because it is emotionally engaging. Truth, by contrast, is usually less sensational. The commercial incentives of many platforms compound the problem. The longer users remain online, the more advertisements they consume. Controversial content drives engagement. Engagement generates revenue. In such an environment, accuracy becomes secondary.

Who bears responsibility when an anonymous AI-generated video goes viral?

Who should be prosecuted when fake content originates outside Kenya? How can regulators distinguish malicious disinformation from genuine political satire? Should platforms be required to identify AI-generated political advertisements? Current laws provide only partial answers. Enforcement remains inconsistent. Meanwhile, technology evolves every month.

Protecting democracy cannot be left solely to government agencies. Technology companies must accept greater responsibility for content moderation during elections. Political parties should commit to ethical campaigning and publicly reject the use of fabricated content. Media organisations must invest more heavily in verification journalism.

Every citizen must learn a simple habit before forwarding a message: Pause. Ask who created it. Verify whether reputable news organisations are reporting it. Check whether the image or video has been manipulated. Not every viral message deserves another share. Democracy cannot function where facts no longer matter. Elections are meaningful only when citizens make informed choices. If voters cannot distinguish reality from fiction, then ballots become little more than responses to manufactured emotions.

Kenya has made significant democratic gains over the past three decades. Those gains should not be undermined by anonymous social media accounts, AI-generated propaganda and coordinated disinformation campaigns designed to divide communities or manipulate public opinion.

As the country heads into another election cycle, every stakeholder has a responsibility to defend the integrity of public discourse. Government must strengthen laws without undermining constitutional freedoms. Technology companies must do more than maximise engagement. Political leaders must resist the temptation to weaponise lies. The media must continue investing in fact-based journalism and citizens must become more discerning consumers of information.

The greatest defence against disinformation is not censorship.It is an informed public that values evidence over emotion and truth over convenience.

Joe Biden's warning should therefore not be seen as an American concern alone. It is a warning for Kenya, for Africa and for every democracy navigating the digital age.The abuse of power he talks about is not confined to Government.

The abuse is perpetrated by individuals with smartphones posting fake news, those generating fake videos and even those in newsrooms allowing publication of wild allegations devoid of proof. If we allow truth to be buried beneath an avalanche of misinformation, disinformation and AI-generated deception, we risk losing far more than an election.We risk losing public trust itself, the very foundation upon which democracy stands.

Emmanuel Juma is a former Managing Editor , NTV and currently working with China Media Group as Government Relations Specialist

Reporting originally appeared via Business Daily. Read the full source for additional context.