DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2014.v02i05.021

Pages: 727-734

Kenyans are yet to examine with a constructive political conversation on social media. As a result, Kenyans use social media (blogsphere) as a forum for political attacks, ethnic fights, hate speech and other unconstructive divisive conversations. This can be seen through the responses that Kenyans post for political stories, especially when the stories do not favour their political affiliations. This study aims to analyse the way Kenyans socialize ethnic hegemony on the blogsphere before and long after the 2013 general elections. The questions to be answered in this article are: how do Kenyans respond to political blog posts in which two Uhuru Kenyatta/ Jubilee or Raila Odinga/Cord are implicated. Do Kenyans differentiate ethnicity from political differences? Where did ethnicity begin before it went to social media in Kenya? What are some of the cases of ethnicity in social media and how are they handled? What is the solution to online ethnic hegemony? The researchers relied on content Analysis for the selected blogs’ responses. The study is based on purposive sampling in which three blogs were selected and political posts were selected provided they were posted before or after the 2013 elections and they carried messages related to 2013 general elections with ethnic implicated responses. The data constitutes responses to the selected blog posts. The responses are analysed for the elements constituting ethnic discussion; constructive or non-constructive. The study found out that in Kenya, there is no difference between a political player, his political party (coalition of parties) and his ethnicity.