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Vol 63 No 4

Published 17th February 2022


Kenya

Dangers of two-track campaigning

Underneath bland mainstream media coverage, social media and vernacular broadcast stations are stirring ethnic divisions

Hopes for credible and peaceful national elections in August are getting shakier. Hate speech and ethnic-baiting in local languages are back in force. Frustrated by official complacency, many Kenyans are alarmed; some fear a repeat of the epic post-election violence of 2008. But not so the government or many of the leading politicians. Neither have the mainstream press, civil society and international organisations sounded alarms about the conduct, past and present, of the two main candidates for the presidency Deputy President William Ruto and Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga. They are highly divisive figures whose supporters are stoking ethnic tensions.

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