A Study on Human Rights Organizations’ Use of Online Activism- the Case of Extra Judicial Killings

Abstract

This study addresses online activism particularly those organized by Human rights organizations against extra judicial killings in Kenya. These organizations tended to focus on litigation in defense of Human Rights abuses in the past but are increasingly turning to online for agitation. Curiously, besides engaging in law courts against extra judicial killings, they also mobilize for online protests some of which end up offline as was the case of #WilliKimani that started online and ended up with the human rights organizations demonstrating along the streets. The main objective of the study was to investigate the extent to which human rights organizations use online space for social activism in the campaign against extra judicial killings. The specific objectives of this study were (i) to establish to what extent human rights organizations in Kenya succeed in using online spaces to advance their agenda, (ii) to determine the factors that enable online protest on extra judicial killing to happen in spite of government surveillance, and (iii) to investigate the justification on why human rights organizations, engage in online activism on extra judicial killing instead of only using litigation. This study used agenda setting and the public sphere theories since online activism is carried out to push for an agenda in the public through a public space. The research utilized a qualitative method. The researcher targeted: Human Rights Organizations that are most active online in defending human rights abuses in Kenya and, have engaged in both online and offline activism. As this is a qualitative approach, the researcher used purposeful sampling. A total of 12 in-depth interviews were conducted but seven were used as they were deemed most responsive to the research objectives. For data analysis, the researcher transcribed the interviews and organized the responses according to their relevance to each study objective. The main study finding is that online media was faster and cheaper than litigation because of the advanced technology which saw information spreading at a click of a button by tagging, sharing or retweet; the information can be shared with little amount of subscribed data or WIFI unlike litigation which still follow long procedures; a lot of money would be needed to hire a lawyer and travel to the court; and lastly a times other cases go unattended to leading to delay in justice for the victims.