Conflict Snapshot – Uchaguzi Bila Balaa – 15 January 2023 – Kenya Election

Search for Common Ground (Search) in collaboration with the Human Rights Agenda (HURIA), Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), Kiunga Youth Bunge Initiative (KYBI), Tana River Peace, Reconciliation and Development (TRPRD) and Ijara Women for Peace has established an Early Warning and Early Response (EWER) system through embedded community observation and social media listening, with the aim to harness the shared information between communities, civil society organisations, and government authorities to identify and address imminent threats in the post-election phase, particularly looking at conflict trends, drivers and locations that could potentially trigger or experience violence. Social media listening monitors online conversations, with a focus on Facebook and TikTok, to track hate speech and misinformation trends and how these could potentially affect conflicts offline.

Between November 1 2022 and January 15 2023, Kenya’s electoral context at the Coast and Garissa was marked by heightened criminal gang activities (10) in Mombasa, Garissa, Lamu and Kwale counties, deaths resulting from a cholera outbreak (22) in Tana River and Garissa counties, child defilements (5) in Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi and Tana River counties, Child marriage (1) in Lamu county, Land disputes (5) in Garissa and Tana River counties, domestic disputes (4) in Kwale and Lamu counties, Female Genital Mutilation (4) in Tana River county, terror attacks (6) in Lamu and Garissa counties, Farmer-herder conflicts (3) in Lamu county, disputes over grazing land (3) in Garissa and Kwale counties, Clan conflicts (2) in Garissa county, mob lynching (4) in Mombasa county and political violence (1) in Garissa county.