Terrorism In Kenya: Media Practitioners Must Not Fall Prey

Collins Wanderi

According to the United States Army Field Manual, 1996, “information is the currency of victory” in warfare. Every good soldier knows that both conventional and non-conventional wars are fought in several theatres of operation. To declare a conclusive conquest in modern warfare, it is not enough to win significant battles in the field but the war must also be won in the hearts and minds of the people in the countries or territories under assault. The use of information operations is critical in any war or battle and can influence the final result of the conflict. Even military coup plotters know that to dislodge an existing political regime they must first seize national broadcasting stations to control the flow of information; whip up emotions against the regime and maintain public support.

Terrorist organizations too have adopted information operations as a method of conveying their extremist ideology and to instil maximum fear in target populations. Terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab use both mainstream and social media to spur new attacks and shape public opinion. Although Al-Shabaab has substantially lost the physical war after being dislodged by the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) from much of the territory and grounds of tactical importance they held in southern Somalia, the militants appear to be winning the psychological war in Kenya.

Al-Shabaab’s new narrative that Kenya should withdraw its forces from Somalia has been buoyed by sections of local media who constantly use shallow “experts” and political opposition to spread this terrorists’ propaganda as the ultimate panacea to repeated terror attacks within the country. What these media practitioners and politicians forget is that Kenya is at war; and in every war civilian casualties are, regrettably almost a guaranteed certainty. Al-Shabaab is leveraging on spreading hate, fear and outrage among ordinary Kenyans to achieve a political aim; the withdrawal of KDF from Somalia. And some media houses, journalists and politicians are playing along and urging the government to accede to the demands of the terrorists.

Terrorists cannot flourish without the media. They adore publicity which helps them spread their ideology, aims and objectives. Exposure also helps terrorists to spread fear and despondency among real and potential victims. Technology has created a limitless virtual space and social media which have given terrorist organizations an expedient and affordable medium to spread materials and information that promote their propaganda; extremist ideology, recruit new followers and mobilize resources.

Al-Shabaab has since November 2011 created and maintained real and parody accounts in social media for this purpose. Bloggers and social media activists often spread propaganda; materials and information crafted by Al-Shabaab just to gain new followers. Mainstream media and accredited journalists too, keen to compete with bloggers, unwittingly pick the same information and relay it to the wider audience who invariably take it as the gospel truth. Similarly, competition between local media houses to access and relay information that keeps their audiences captivated, boost ratings and increase profits has given Al-Shabaab room to influence public opinion and set the agenda in public debate. Consequently, Al-Shabaab is now adopting more ruthless methods and severer tactics on its actual and potential victims in Kenya to create greater impact and attract better media coverage and attain maximum publicity and attention.

Media practitioners must realize that terrorists can do anything to manipulate journalists to communicate their message. Reporters can be bribed and gullible editors manipulated to pick information from blogs and parody accounts operated by terrorist groups to unconsciously spread terrorist propaganda. Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery was right to censor the local media for repeatedly broadcasting exaggerated figures on the number of casualties in the recent Al-Shabaab attack at Yumbis in Garissa County.

The initial information broadcast by some media outlets and journalists on 26th May, 2015 exposed them as robots that are all too ready to spread war and terrorist propaganda without questioning its source or veracity. Such media houses are certainly vulnerable to manipulation by Al-Shabaab to advance its political objectives and set the agenda for public debate in Kenya. All journalists and editors must remember that Al-Shabaab is a terrorist group which has no chance of physically defeating the KDF or the African Union Forces in Somalia. This is why the group has resorted to the use of psychological warfare through deliberate and sustained violent attacks on unarmed civilians and threats of use of such violence in Kenya and Somalia to achieve a desired political end.