Social Media Analysis of

President Kenyatta’s State of the Nation

Address

March 24, 2017

Key Findings

•  An Al-Jazeera tweet announcing President Kenyatta’s address

had the highest number of impressions, 3.7 million, and was widely shared and liked.

•  Kenyan media outlets overwhelmingly amplified the president’s messages by posting key quotes during the address. They did not provide any live commentary and rarely posted critical comments which were made during subsequent panel discussions.

•  Radio stations predominately used social media to warn people about heightened security around parliament on March 15.

•  Citizen participation on social media was very low and mainly involved negative comments.

•  Not many government or opposition influencers echoed messages from their respective camps.

•  Conversation volumes ebbed dramatically the following day. 2

NoahW.MillerManagingDirector

2

President Uhuru Kenyatta gave a State of the Nation Address on March 15, 2017. Most of the social media posts about the address were trivial, but we analyzed five key themes for more nuanced findings.

Find

ings

Methodology

•  #sotn2017, #sotnke, #sonake2017,

#stateofthenation, #stateofthenationisstrong and #stateofthelies.

•  The posts were made overwhelmingly on Twitter.

•  They generated 462 million impressions and reached 34.3 million users.

•  On March 16, the number of relevant posts dropped to 428.

•  We examined five themes that were highlighted in the speech and were fact-checked by the Daily Nation and AfricaCheck.

3 3

Sam

ple

We analyzed 4,031 social media posts made between March 13-19, 2017. They were tagged with hashtags related to the State of the Nation Address.

Devolution

•  Both the Daily Nation and AfricaCheck agreed that the facts given on devolution were correct.

•  On a positive note, the People Daily often posted about Wajir getting its first tarmac road. Other posts mentioned accomplishments such as the Huduma Centres, improved street lighting and county headquarters getting a fiber optic connection.

•  Conversely, a negative post by @RolandEbole criticizing the low amount of road construction around Kenya was frequently reposted across various themes.

34%

61%

5%Tone

Nega9ve

Neutral

Posi9ve

44

Dev

olut

ion

295 posts had economy as a keyword: 101 negative, 179 neutral and 15 positive. They generated 51.3 million impressions and reached 3.76 million.

Sample Posts

55

Pos

ts

Infrastructure

•  A negative tweet by @RolandEbole commenting on the lower than promised kilometers of road construction. It had the highest virality and was reposted 127 times.

•  There were 23 posts from media houses led by K24. Most focused on the construction of the first paved road in Wajir county and China’s partnership in infrastructure.

•  All positive posts came from media houses (People Daily had four alone).

66

Infra

stru

ctur

e

120 posts had economy as a keyword: 78 negative, 32 neutral and 10 positive. They generated 11.4 million impressions and reached 0.8 million.

65%

27%

8%

Tone

Nega9ve

Neutral

Posi9ve

Sample Posts

77

Pos

ts

Economy

•  30 posts were made by Citizen TV, KTN, NTV, The Standard, People Daily and Tupo News.

•  Media outlets frequently quoted the president’s claim about the economy being robust.

•  Of the 17 negative posts, none were made by media houses but by individuals. They mainly commented on the rising cost of basic goods.

88

Eco

nom

y

76 posts had economy as a keyword: 17 negative, 48 neutral and 11 positive. They generated 16.2 million impressions and reached 1.21 million.

22%

63%

15%

Tone

Nega9ve

Neutral

Posi9ve

Sample Posts

99

Pos

ts

Police

•  Many radio stations commented on police tightening security near parliament though they did not comment on the president’s speech directly.

•  NTV announced before the address that security would be a highlight. The president’s claim that the number of police officers surpasses a UN recommendation was indeed widely mentioned. However, both the Daily Nation and AfricaCheck agreed that the facts presented about the police were false.

•  Both Citizen TV and NTV featured a post where a commentator on their show voiced critical remarks. These posts garnered nearly 6 million impressions. 1010

Pol

ice

56 posts mentioned the word corruption: 2 negative, 48 neutral and 6 positive. They generated 15.2 million impressions and reached 1.1 million.

3%

86%

11%

Tone

Nega9ve

Neutral

Posi9ve

Sample Posts

1111

Pos

ts

Corruption

•  There was not a single negative post about corruption from a media outlet.

•  The Star and Kenyan News falsely reported the recovery of Sh. 30 billion from graft though the figure mentioned in the president’s speech was Sh. 3 billion.

•  There were 5 reposts from a People Daily post saying “President Kenyatta: There is no corruption worse than that is directed to our youth. #SOTN2017.”

1212

Cor

rupt

ion

52 posts mentioned the word corruption: 15 negative, 37 neutral and 0 positive. They generated 9.3 million impressions and reached 0.7 million.

29%

71%

Tone

Nega9ve

Neutral

Sample Posts

1313

Pos

ts

Themes and Queries

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Devolu'on Infrastructure Economy Police Corrup'on

Keywords •  Devolu9on•  Revenues•  Coun9es•  Huduma,•  Services•  Servicedelivery•  Publicservice•  Financialyear•  Devolved

system•  Development•  Garissa,Lamu,

Wajir,Turkana,Narok,UasinGishu

•  Countygovernment

•  Infrastructure•  SGR•  Railway•  Roads•  Roadconstruc9on

•  Economy•  Economicgrowth•  5.9percent•  5.9%•  Grossdomes9cproduct

•  Police•  Internalsecurity

•  Corrup9on•  Economiccrimes•  An9-corrup9on•  3billionshillings•  Honestexams

#ofPosts •  295 •  120 •  76 •  56 •  52

Impressionsinmillion

•  51.3 •  11.4 •  16.2 •  15.2 •  9.3

Reachinmillion •  3.76 •  0.8 •  1.21 •  1.1 •  0.7

Que

ries

Our Media Intelligence Tool

•  We use a media intelligence platform called Radarly, which has been top ranked by Goldbach, reviewed by Gartner, and named a high performer by G2 crowd users.

•  Radarly is a leading solution for real-time social media listening, analysis, influencer identification, engagement and reporting.

•  The tool allows us to perform benchmark analyses, investigate keywords or discussion topics, conduct reputation management, monitor and engage with influencers, and asses the impact of campaigns, amongst others.

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Rad

arly

CONTACT

Sochin Limited Noah W. Miller, Managing Director NMiller@sochin.agency 0721.403.574 www.sochin.agency Marula Manor Marula Lane Karen, Nairobi

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tact