Nyabola - Digital democracy, analogue politics: how the Internet era is transforming Kenya

African Arguments

Written by experts with an unrivalled knowledge of the continent, African Arguments is a series of concise, engaging books that address the key issues currently facing Africa. Topical and thought-provoking, accessible but in-depth, they provide essential reading for anyone interested in getting to the heart of both why contemporary Africa is the way it is and how it is changing.

African Arguments Online

African Arguments Online is a pan-African platform for news, investigation and opinion, managed by the Royal African Society, www.africanarguments.org

Series editors

Adam Branch, University of Cambridge

Alex de Waal, World Peace Foundation

Richard Dowden, journalist and author

Alcinda Honwana, Open University

Managing editor

Stephanie Kitchen, International African Institute

Editorial board

Emmanuel Akyeampong, Harvard University

Tim Allen, London School of Economics and Political Science

Akwe Amosu, Open Society Institute

Breyten Breytenbach, Gore Institute

Peter da Costa, journalist and development specialist

William Gumede, journalist and author

Abdul Mohammed, InterAfrica Group

Robert Molteno, editor and publisher

Titles already published

Alex de Waal, AIDS and Power

Tim Allen, Trial Justice

Raymond W. Copson, The United States in Africa

Chris Alden, China in Africa

Tom Porteous, Britain in Africa

Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, Darfur: A New History of a Long War

Jonathan Glennie, The Trouble with Aid

Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A Peoples Story of Burundi

Bronwen Manby, Struggles for Citizenship in Africa

Camilla Toulmin, Climate Change in Africa

Orla Ryan, Chocolate Nations

Theodore Trefon, Congo Masquerade

Lonce Ndikumana and James Boyce, Africas Odious Debts

Mary Harper, Getting Somalia Wrong?

Neil Carrier and Gernot Klantschnig, Africa and the War on Drugs

Alcinda Honwana, Youth and Revolution in Tunisia

Marc Epprecht, Sexuality and Social Justice in Africa

Lorenzo Cotula, The Great African Land Grab?

Michael Deibert, The Democratic Republic of Congo

Adam Branch and Zachariah Mampilly, Africa Uprising

Celeste Hicks, Africas New Oil

Morten Jerven, Africa: Why Economists Get it Wrong

Theodore Trefon, Congos Environmental Paradox

Paul Richards, Ebola: How a Peoples Science Helped End an Epidemic

Louisa Lombard, State of Rebellion

Kris Berwouts, Congos Violent Peace

Hilary Matfess, Women and the War on Boko Haram

Celeste Hicks, The Trial of Hissne Habr

Mick Moore, Wilson Prichard and Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Taxing Africa

Ebenezer Obadare, Pentecostal Republic

Forthcoming title

Rachel Ibreck with Alex de Waal, South Sudans Injustice System: Law and Activism on th e Front Line

Published by Zed Books and the IAI with the support of the following organisations:

The principal aim of the International African Institute is to promote scholarly understanding of Africa, notably its changing societies, cultures and languages. Founded in 1926 and based in London, it supports a range of seminars and publications including the journal Africa .
www.internationalafricaninstitute.org

The Royal African Society is a membership organisation that provides opportunities for people to connect, celebrate and engage critically with a wide range of topics and ideas about Africa today. Through events, publications and digital channels it shares insight, instigates debate and facilitates mutual understanding between the UK and Africa. The society amplifies African voices and interests in academia, business, politics, the arts and education, reaching a network of more than one million people globally.
www.royalafricansociety.org

The World Peace Foundation , founded in 1910 , is located at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. The Foundations mission is to promote innovative research and teaching, believing that these are critical to the challenges of making peace around the world, and should go hand in hand with advocacy and practical engagement with the toughest issues. Its central theme is reinventing peace for the twenty-first century.
www.worldpeacefoundation.org

About the author

Nanjala Nyabola is a Kenyan writer, humanitarian advocate and political analyst currently based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her writing and research focus on refugee issues and humanitarian interventions, as well as technology and media in Africa. She is the co-editor of Where Women Are: Gender and the 2017 Kenyan Election and a frequent contributor to numerous publications and platforms including Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, IRIN, New African, The Africa Report and the BBCs Focus on Africa, as well as numerous books. Nyabola holds a BA in African Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham (UK), an MSc in Forced Migration and an MSc in African Studies, both from the University of Oxford, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar, as well as a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

DIGITAL DEMOCRACY, ANALOGUE POLITICS

HOW THE INTERNET ERA IS
TRANSFORMING KENYA

NANJALA NYABOLA

Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Kenya was first published in 2018 by Zed Books Ltd, The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR, UK

www.zedbooks.net

Copyright Nanjala Nyabola 2018

The right of Nanjala Nyabola to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

Typeset in Haarlemmer by seagulls.net

Index: Ed Emery

Cover design: Jonathan Pelham

Cover image credit:

Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Reconnaissance II, 2016

Acrylic and oil on canvas

Courtesy of October Gallery

James Zang collection

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78699-430-1 hb

ISBN 978-1-78699-431-8 pb

ISBN 978-1-78699-432-5 pdf

ISBN 978-1-78699-433-2 epub

ISBN 978-1-78699-434-9 mobi

For my family, who dont always understand but support me anyway.

CONTENTS

This book has been over ten years in the making, beginning with my experiences of the 2007 election violence in Kenya and my own frustrating interactions with the Western canon on Africa that discouraged me from pursuing this subject while at university. Ten years since that crisis, Im ecstatic to finally be able to put these thoughts into the world, and glad to see that my instincts were right technology is indeed playing a disproportionate role in shaping Kenyan politics.

It takes a village to complete a project of this depth and breadth, and I am especially grateful to my little e-village that has believed in me and in this project. I would especially like to thank Dr Keguro Macharia, who is more of a mentor to me than he realises and constantly pushes me to be a more generous, questioning and engaged thinker. To the radical feminists of Kenyan Twitter Ory Okolloh Mwangi, Aisha Ali, Kellie Murungi, Nanjira Sambuli, Dr Wambui Mwangi, Dr Wandia Njoya, Dr Njoki Ngumi, Dr Grace Musila and countless others whose daily conversations are filled with wit and wisdom that every day reifies my belief in our broken little country. You are ungovernable, and Kenya needs more of you. And to Dr Yolande Bouka, Dr Malebogo Ngoepe, Jina Moore and Katrin Siedel, who listened.