| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of the study was to examine the role of mobile telephony use in preventing
electoral violence in Embakasi Constituency during Kenya’s 2013 general election. Four
research questions were developed from which the four research objectives were drawn. The
questions include; How have mobile telephony based platforms been used as conflict
prevention tool during elections?, To what extent is the use of mobile telephony based
platforms an effective tool for prevention of election violence?, What are the barriers in using
mobile phones as a communication plan during elections? and, How can the use of mobile
telephone based applications be enhanced to increase its effectiveness in prevention of
violence? Related literature on the use of mobile telephony platforms in communication was
reviewed. The theoretical framework was based on the Networked society by Manuel
Castells(1996). The study targeted all the residents of Embakasi Constituency. Krijcie and
Morgan’s sampling table was used to select a sample of 382 respondents. Questionnaire tools
were used to collect the required information. Data was analyzed using charts, frequencies,
percentages, and descriptive statistics generated by the use of Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS). It was established that most of the residents received at least one political
message during the 2013 elections, with 16 per cent receiving voice calls, 16 per cent social
media messages, and 59 per cent receiving SMS. The most frequently shared messages
among the residents were; voting updates, Peace advocating messages, political campaign
updates, political campaigns updates, Voter education messages, and Messages on election
results. Other messages shared were; Messages that restricted movement, inciting messages
and messages that spread panic. The main sources of election messages were friends, family
members, Media, Neighbours, Political Parties, Civil Rights Movements, NGOs, and
Government authorities (chief). Majority of the residents were influenced by the messages to
some extent because the messages came from reliable sources, and that others had election tension that restricted freedom of movement. The influence was also motivated by the fact
that majority of the residents were previously affected by PEV where they suffered ethnic
tensions, riots, destruction of property and loss of lives to loved ones. The main challenges
faced by the residents included lack of airtime credit, fear of being arrested for incitement,
lack of trust of the sources of information, fear of rejection by friends and family members,
lack of network coverage, high cost of mobile messages and that some messages could not
open in some of the phones. Others included language concerns, fear of law enforcement,
lack of electricity, fear of losing phones and inexperience in the use of some features of the
mobile phones. The mobile phone platform was the most commonly used form of incitement,
an indicator that it could easily be used to perpetrate election violence if not properly
monitored. Recommendations were made that the Ministry of Information and
Communication encourages the uptake of mobile telephony platform as it was found to have
an effective reach to very many people within a short time, that the Ministry of Internal
Security develops a framework and a mechanism of tracking and bringing to book the
perpetrators and originators of criminally instigated acts on the mobile telephony networks,
that IEBC develops official mobile application from where the citizens can access reliable
information on civic education, voter education, voting progress, and election results in real
time, and that the official political parties develop respective official mobile application from
where the citizens can access reliable information on campaign trail and respective party
activities in real time. Further research was suggested on the influence of mobile telephony
platforms in the management of election in non-volatile spots in Kenya | en_US |
