Kenya is once again in an election year and it is the second time the country is having General Elections in this age of social media.
The last elections were held in 2013 and by then the relative population of Kenyans active on social media was way smaller than we have currently. We have millions of people who have accounts with WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter and they are airing their thoughts about the impending elections on these platforms.
Twitter is one of those networks that is designed as a forum so that people can discuss freely about what is currently happening in the world. The company noticed that the real time debates coupled with hashtags is one of their biggest assets since it generates a lot of engagement and that is why they started the hashflag program.
Hashflags are specialized hashtags with custom Twitter emoji that allow people to offer their thoughts about it, using it or letting people see what people are saying about the event. Just like they did with the US elections, Twitter has granted two dedicated hashflags for the upcoming Kenyan Election as shown in this tweet.
Join the conversation around the Kenyan election and unlock the special emoji by using #electionske and #electionske2017 pic.twitter.com/Q9yoz2ZA0J
— Government (@Gov) July 25, 2017
The two hashflags are #electionske and #electionske2017 which Kenyans on Twitter will use to talk about the coming election. You can bet people from other countries will be following the events surrounding the Kenyan election from such dedicated hashtags and Twitter might reveal the analytics from the hashtags after the elections. The estimated 2 million Kenyans on Twitter, the ball is now in your court.
