December 16, 2025 (Nairobi, Kenya): Peace in Kenya has been changing shape right in front of our eyes. It has moved from formal rooms and official gatherings into the digital streets where people express themselves daily. Today, some of the most important peace work is happening on our phones, in spaces that many people underestimate. It is unfolding inside X conversations that run deep into the night, in the fast and emotional world of TikTok, in WhatsApp groups that hold entire communities together and in Instagram Lives where strangers become allies. Women and young people are the ones carrying this work, often without recognition, but with an extraordinary sense of responsibility and intuition.
I have watched this shift grow quietly but powerfully. Whenever Kenya reaches a moment of tension, you can feel the digital climate change instantly. You see the hashtags building heat, the rumours spreading, the fear rising. Often, the same young people who make us laugh online suddenly switch into a different mode. They begin hosting impromptu X Spaces to calm people down. They invite thousands into conversations that try to verify what is true and what is not. During the last election cycle, the United Nations observed how harmful content spread online and documented how young Kenyans and civil society actors responded quickly to de-escalate that tension. It affirmed what many of us had already seen with our own eyes. Young Kenyans understand the urgency of digital peace. They move faster than institutions because they do not have the luxury of waiting. Their homes, families, futures and mental wellbeing depend on it.
One of the clearest memories I carry comes from a night when the country felt on edge. Whispered rumours were moving through social media. People were afraid, many of them quietly. Then a young Kenyan opened a simple X Space. Within minutes, more people joined. Soon, thousands were listening. What stayed with me was how people began to comfort each other, challenge misinformation and verify the truth together. Although that Space was not archived, UNESCO’s Social media 4 Peace project confirms that these spontaneous digital interventions are not accidents. They are part of a pattern of rapid peace responses across Kenya, where ordinary citizens use their platforms to slow down harmful content long before anyone issues an official statement.
TikTok has also become an unexpected engine of peace. When a Mozilla investigation exposed how the platform was amplifying political disinformation during the 2022 elections, it created a wave of self-awareness among Kenyan creators. Many of them, especially women, started using humour and satire to disarm hostility. I remember watching creators reenact the absurdity of tribal insults to show how meaningless they are when examined closely. The comments under those videos were full of people confessing that the content made them rethink how they behave online. Some said they deleted posts they had made earlier. Others said the humour helped them realise how easily they buy into harmful narratives. These moments may seem small, but they shift behaviour in ways that formal peace messaging does not.
When humour and cultural language reach people, attitudes begin to soften. Then there are the WhatsApp groups. They are the silent protectors of peace in Kenya. They are where rumours go first, but they are also where truth is saved. I have seen mothers, youth leaders, neighbours and friends rally together to fact-check worrying messages. Community groups verify news with local leaders, boda boda riders, or relatives on the ground before forwarding anything. This spirit reflects the work of organisations like #defyhatenow Kenya, which trains communities to understand misinformation and stop harmful content at the source. It is also rooted in the legacy of Ushahidi, the Kenyan platform that showed the world how crowdsourced verification can save lives. These digital habits have become part of how Kenyans look out for one another.
Another powerful example is Maskani, a youth-led initiative documented by the Wilson Center and Rongo University. It used the voices of students and micro-influencers to counter rising political tensions before the elections. The idea was simple but brilliant. Speak the language young people understand. Use culture, humour, storytelling and identity to encourage peace. Maskani proved that when young people lead, they create trust. When they create trust, they create calm. And when they create calm, they create stability. This is the new peace infrastructure taking root across Kenya.
What I have learned from observing all these moments is that peace no longer waits for perfect conditions. It does not wait for meetings, conferences or long plans. Peace now moves at the speed of a notification. It lives in the hands of creators, mothers, students, community leaders and young people who understand how quickly conflict can spread if left unchecked. These people do not see themselves as peacebuilders, yet their work is real. It is recorded in analytics, in comments, in community testimonies and in documented digital investigations.
Kenya is showing the region something powerful. Peace is not only built by institutions. It is built by ordinary people who refuse to let their country fall apart again. It is built by voices that choose understanding over division. It is built by digital communities that challenge fear before it becomes violence. This is the new architecture of peace. Innovative, community-driven, digital, human and very Kenyan.
This is the story I want to honour. The story of women and youth who take their phones, open their apps, and choose peace repeatedly.
They do not do it for recognition. They do it because they love this country. Yes, they know that peace today begins with all of us, right where we are.
VERIFIED EVIDENCE FOR DIGITAL PEACEBUILDING IN KENYA
- UNESCO social media for Peace Project to counter harmful
content Kenya
- https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-launches-phase-ii-social-media-4-peace-project-kenya?utm_source=chatgpt.com
- https://www.donan.org/news-views/social-media-for-peace
- UN Kenya – Digital Peacebuilding: Countering Online Toxic
Content in Kenya’s 2022 Election
- Maskani Digital Peacebuilding (Rongo University + Peacemaker
Corps)
- Wilson Center: Maskani Digital Peacebuilding Analysis
- Peacemaker Corps Kenya / CMDPS-Rongo University, https://cpdpcnp.or.ke/
- #defyhatenow Kenya: Countering Hate and Misinformation
- #defyhatenow Kenya country page, https://defyhatenow.org/kenya/
for counter-speech, fact-checking and community resilience building.
- #defyhatenow field guides and toolkits,
https://defyhatenow.org/resources/
- Investigative reporting on TikTok and disinformation in Kenya
- Wired Article on “TikTok Bombarding Kenya with Misleading Political Content”
https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-misleading-political-content-kenya-election/
- Mozilla Investigation – TikTok in Kenya’s 2022 Elections,
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/tiktok-inaction-around-kenyas-election/
- Crowdsourced Peace Tech – Ushahidi (Kenyan-built platform)
- Ushahidi site for verification and crisis-mapping platform used
globally, https://www.ushahidi.com/ and case studies,
https://www.ushahidi.com/case-studies
- Academic & Policy Research on Misinformation and Elections inKenya
- Policy Brief “Disinformation and Kenya’s 2022 Election
- African Internet Rights Docs – Online Harms in Kenya
Author: Janet Machuka
Media Personality,
Digital Storytelling Specialist
Nairobi, Kenya
