Checking Kenya’s Election
How Code for Kenya and ELOG (Election Observer Group) are using Check to verify and debunk election claims in East Africa
Kenya is today voting in presidential elections for the second time in three months, after the August election result was annulled by Kenya’s Supreme Court. The rerun, taking place today and on Saturday (October 28), is being boycotted by opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Fake Polls, Misinformation and Fake News
After the August election, which was marred by clashes, Eric Mugendi, PesaCheck Managing Editor, wrote a report showing how Fake News in Kenya is getting sophisticated, describing it as;
“not just fake stories any more, we’re seeing whole fake websites popping up with fake surveys and dodgy results.”
A week before the first round of elections in August, represented the peak of misinformation and fake news shared on social media. CNN published a report Kenya election: Fake CNN, BBC reports target voters after “a fake voiceover segment which falsely implies that one candidate is leading over the other in a recent poll.”
Election day
@code4kenya has partnered with Kenya’s Election Observers Group (ELOG) to monitor incident reports from the Kenyan presidential election, and the team is using @Check to streamline the fact-checking process. So far, they have checked and debunked more than 60 election-related claims;
Partnership with Pesa Check
In September Check arrived in East Africa, Meedan and PesaCheck launched a new partnership. PesaCheck is integrating Meedan’s open source Check toolkit in their work verifying statements of public figures across the countries where they’re operating: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.The cooperation comes through support from innovateAFRICA and funders including the Omidyar Network, Knight Foundation, MDIF, and Gates Foundation.
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