The Role of Social Media in Influencing Radicalization (Case Study of Majengo-Nairobi, Kenya)

In the past 10 years, Kenya has seen a surge in terror related attacks characterized by unimaginable carnage to human life and property. The Kenyan government has been at the fore front of ensuring that radicalization is halted in all its roots but with the advent of social media at the turn of the century, these efforts have become a Herculean task and new frontiers of thinking needed to beef up the efforts. Radicalization by Al Shabaab operatives in Majengo has predominantly been through several platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Telegram. Large scale unethical application of technology has led us to a dystopian digital world which is an imaginary digital society that is as dehumanizing and unpleasant. The internet was designed to maximize simplicity of communication not security of communication. Al-Shabaab has exploited social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to spread their propaganda and recruit new members, they use their online narrative to indoctrinated sympathizers through internet advocacy. This thesis seeks to answer to what is the extent to which social media is an effective tool of recruitment ground for extremist, the online recruitment patterns and recruitment narratives, why Radical Violent Extremist use social media, and what are the policy regulations for responsible use of social media can be used to mitigate radicalization. This research also seeks to answer uncover the trends and how several scholars support that social media plays a huge role in the radicalization of youth in Majengo Nairobi, with the end goal of informing counter-violent extremism strategists of the advancements in digital technology. The study adopted a qualitative research design. It relied on both primary and secondary sources of data. In terms of primary data, the study relied on interviews and questionnaires and included youth, community workers, and faith-based leaders. Data was analyzed through Interpretative and quantitative content analysis.