KOT THE KEYBOARD WARRIORS

So here I am awake at 3 in the night, well sleepless nights are common when staying in hostels full of university students from the racketing music to the late-night staggering Kenya Cane crew, unlike most nights, this time a couple just outside my window, so loud well judging from the smell of the great plant cannabis sativa, I understood. From one topic to another they critiqued and laughed be it abortion or relationships in campus, well I dint feel like I was being nosy listening to their arguments but they woke me up…. attention seekers…….

So, they go and on, laughing and I cuddled up in my bed, when a good laugh comes along the way I chuckle too. Then the lady appreciates the Madaraka Express SGR train and says how its Mombasa Terminus is upholding with the view of the ocean, then I remember my experience, thinking out loud like the third party I was, once being in the train each compartment would carry 6 passengers but that day it was just the two of us, me and some mzungu lady, her eyes blue and hair oooh her hair, well my hair was great too having stayed with my braids for three months, you can picture that, then I think about seating in the compartment with my headphones listening to Bensoul’s song Lucy  while trying to grasp the lyrics…… mtoto mtoto mdogo amevaa ngoloba…… coming back to reality, I noticed the couple were long gone and one hour had passed. Thinking of it this is how Kenyans are on Social Media inconsistent like a small toddler grasping one thing then swiftly on to the next or like a man suffering from Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

The Arab Spring of January 2011, resulted from corrupt oppressive governments, high unemployment, poverty rates and low higher education opportunities in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. The revolution started when one man, Mohammed Bouazizi, a young merchant in Tunisia lit himself on fire in protest of the corrupt dealings of the police who asked for bribes in order to sell his merchandise. The movement was done by the youth who used technology against their oppressors, they utilized social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in order to organize themselves so that everyone was on the same page, the messages spread to the whole world and they received support.

Well Kenyans are always known as Twitter gurus with the phrase Kenyans on Twitter (KOT), the explosive radical sentiments about oppressiveness, corrupt governments and issues on human infringement waken up the beast that is KOT, with harsh messages and aggressive hashtags to put their message across. At times seen as a platform for hear says and exaggerated critiques.

Are KOT just keyboard warriors?

Are Kenyans organized enough to actually start their own “Arab Spring” or are they loosely overwhelmed by one rising issue then quickly distracted by another forgetting their main goal.

#tags like #WeCannotIgnore and #RedCrossTumechoka should trend so much that we get answers and results, helping our fellow Kenyans in Turkana. Other hashtags on corruption too, are supposed to be over shared till we are actually heard, the Kenyan cries and pleas on social media should result to something better than being number one trending without getting action from it.

Does the Kenyan Social Media play a crucial role in the type of system we long to have in our nation, a less corrupt Kenya, with higher job opportunities, with actual developments that have no loopholes, or one that is able to manage food resources from every part of the nation preventing starvation of fellow citizens or a Kenya that is free from police brutality.