Last week in Nairobi, ISD launched Between Two Extremes, a report featuring highlights of our research into online extremist messaging in Kenya and building responses with Kenyan community service organisations (CSOs) during the contested 2017 Presidential elections. 

In 2017, ISD used our research and mapping resources to inform and train over 50 Kenyan community service organisations (CSOs) dedicated to peacebuilding. ISD assisted 29 of them to create video counter-narrative campaigns which were disseminated between July and November 2017, in the midst of a volatile election period that included an annulled vote in August and a boycotted follow-up vote in October.

Google, Facebook, and Twitter all contributed resources to the project, including in-kind advertising support to ensure that the counter-narrative messages reached the right audiences and had maximum impact. Over 4.4 million Kenyans were reached during the campaign period with high engagement and evidence of impact among target audiences. Facebook was the most widely used platform, followed by YouTube and Twitter.

The project has shown that Kenyan citizens and CSOs can begin to mount a proportional response to the increasing activity of extremists, particularly as social media use grows in Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa in general. With ISD’s continued assistance, the CSOs will hopefully improve their learning and expertise as they produce more counter-narrative messaging and share their experiences and knowledge with fellow Kenyans.