Digital shift transforms Kenya’s electoral process into an efficient exercise

By Thursday morning, over 1,500 reports from around the country indicated that the reception to the results had been largely peaceful, with over 70 per cent of all reports verified by official sources.

“There’s a lot of tension in Ndeffo, Kihingo and Mauche. The two major communities are sending warnings against one another. Thanks,” said one negative report.

Events reported included acts of violence, looting, hate speech incidents as well as peace initiatives.

Citizens, media houses and observers turned to social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to provide updates, with Nation Media’s web presence noting a spike in traffic over the last two days.

According to internet analysts Alexa, Daily Nation status was upgraded from a ‘medium’ to ‘high impact’ website in its search analytics.

On Twitter, the tag #kenyadecides - which gathers all updates on the referendum - emerged as one of the most popular topics trending on the website globally.