Checking Kenya’s Election

How Code for Africa and (ELOG) 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.

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

Code For Africa 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;