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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

"Vote or Die" Kenyans use social media to boost voters in election

Reuters reports that social media has helped to boost voter turnout and awareness during the Kenyan elections. Over 12.5M Kenyans have registered to vote in the elections, which will decide whether to adopt a new constitution. As a pioneer in mobile technology, nearly 50% of citizens have access to the web. According to Aly Khan Satchu, a prolific Twitter user with over 5,000 followers, "We have gone from being able to communicate amongst a few people ... to be able to reach thousands of people in one go on a democratic platform. It's revolutionary, I think. It is a trend in society where people can actually gather in scale and can respond ... going forward, it is going to be an important area for politics and the way the country engages." What can we learn from the Kenyan use of social media? Can we use this information to help other countries?

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