By Lucy Mwangi
At a recent election forum, a panelist boldly declared that, “The real tallying centre in 2027 won’t be Bomas. It will be on TikTok.” What sounded like a provocative soundbite quickly struck a deeper truth: Kenya’s elections are no longer shaped only by ballot counts but by digital narratives unfolding in real-time, on screens held in the palms of millions.
TikTok has evolved far beyond lip-sync challenges and comedy skits. In the 2022 General Election, it became an informal newswire. Citizens posted videos of Form 34A from polling stations, livestreamed vote counting, debated projections, and spread both verified information and outright propaganda. TikTok’s power lies in its immediacy. While mainstream media waits for confirmation and editorial approval, TikTok users upload raw footage within seconds, and the public reacts instantly through comments, shares, duets and stitches. This two-way, real-time engagement makes the platform extraordinarily influential, and potentially volatile.
If TikTok becomes Kenya’s “unofficial tallying centre” in 2027, it will not be because it announces official results, but because it shapes public belief about those results. Perception, especially during elections, is power. A viral video of a disputed tally or a celebratory livestream can influence national mood faster than any press briefing from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). In a country where trust in institutions remains delicate, the danger is that digital narratives could overshadow official processes.
This is why IEBC and other players in the election monitoring space must evolve urgently. For years, organisations like FOCUS have limited their monitoring to newspapers, television, radio and political advertisements. But that model belongs to a media era that no longer exists. Social media has become an alternative electoral arena: unfiltered, immediate, emotional and participatory. TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and WhatsApp are where political conversations now begin, peak and explode. Silence in this space is no longer neutrality, it is absence.
Media monitoring must now include real-time tracking of viral content, identifying political influencers, analysing public sentiment and rapidly verifying videos and images from polling stations. Monitoring teams must collaborate with fact-checkers, tech experts, digital rights groups and social media platforms to ensure misinformation is flagged before it spirals. The idea of “TikTok Election Observers”, specialised teams to monitor digital election activity, no longer sounds far-fetched, but necessary.
Where does that leave IEBC? In the past, there has been contention between the electoral body and media on election results, with the former accusing the fourth estate of moving too fast in transmitting figures instead of waiting for official results. Election laws provide that only the electoral management body can declare results, and this process must take place in seven days.
With digital media progressively taking centre stage, IEBC needs to overhaul its systems to catch up. Research has shown that Kenyans are increasingly turning to social media as their primary source of news. IEBC must find digital solutions to fast tallying, verification and transmission to reduce tensions brought by delayed results to inspire trust.
Lucy works at the Media Council of Kenya as a research officer
