The Kenyan government has allocated up to KES 100 million per year to pay social media influencers and bloggers to promote official government messaging online, according to the recently published Draft Government Communication Strategy 2024–2027.
The Ministry of Information, Communication, and the Digital Economy is behind the initiative, working alongside the Presidential Communication Service and the Office of the Government Spokesperson.
This plan comes as the government contends with what it describes as an increasingly difficult environment to control information flow, especially after recent protests that were largely organized through social media platforms.
The spending will target influencers across Facebook, Twitter (or X), Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Telegram, and Threads. Macro-influencers with followings exceeding 100,000 will receive KES 1 million quarterly, with the government planning to engage 20 such influencers.
Micro-influencers, who typically have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers, will get KES 1 million quarterly as well, with 32 influencers in this category tasked with creating and promoting hashtags.
Beyond direct payments to influencers, the government has set aside KES 18 million annually for content dissemination fees covering sponsored posts on blogs, vlogs, websites, and online publications.
The influencers will essentially serve as government brand ambassadors, responsible for promoting what the strategy document calls government achievements and success stories. The government frames part of this effort as fighting misinformation, disinformation, and what it terms mal-information.
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Influencers and community leaders will receive digital tools and resources to counter narratives the government considers false, with this component costing KES 1.67 million monthly. Public awareness campaigns across both mainstream and social media will add another KES 4.17 million per month to the tab.
The influencer spending is just one piece of a much larger communication budget. The government estimates the total cost of implementing the National Communication Strategy at KES 2.8 billion over 3 years, covering digital media, traditional advertising, influencer partnerships, and technology investments.
Unsurprisingly, the government has previously employed this approach. Last year, an Amnesty International report found that the government had already been paying influencers to drown out protest hashtags and push pro-government content, while also intimidating critics.
Dennis Itumbi, Head of Creative Economy and Special Projects in the Executive Office of the President, publicly stated in October that the government was willing to pay creators making content around housing, health, job creation, and agriculture.
The government says this is just adapting to the age of social media. Critics will see it a bit differently and wonder why public money is being used to “manage the narrative,” especially when the plan openly admits it is about taking back control of information.
