Election influencers for hire: Kenya’s disinformation factories

Mwai (right), 23, browses social media platforms on his mobile phone with a member of his outfit of social media influencers at an office in Thika town, central Kenya on April 26, 2022. — AFP

NAIROBI: In a nondescript office north of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, social media influencer Ian James Mwai constantly glances at his two mobile phones, wary of missing an opportunity to promote the political party he works for.

The 23-year-old is in the vanguard of the growing ranks of influencers feverishly punching keyboards and hoping to tilt the outcome of the country’s high-stakes elections, which are less than 100 days away.