Citizen journalism is a relatively new term, especially in many non-western parts of the world. It is best known to make it easier for people to share information and stories with the rest of the...Show moreCitizen journalism is a relatively new term, especially in many non-western parts of the world. It is best known to make it easier for people to share information and stories with the rest of the world through online platforms. The negative sides of citizen journalism are however sometimes hard to overlook, especially in situations where citizen journalism may completely replace the mainstream media. This can be seen to have happened during the 2007 Kenyan presidential election crisis, when the elections took a violent turn.Show less
In the context of the upcoming elections in Kenya in August 2017, debates on Twitter have highlighted the gap between the political elite’s electoral agenda and the population’s daily struggles of...Show moreIn the context of the upcoming elections in Kenya in August 2017, debates on Twitter have highlighted the gap between the political elite’s electoral agenda and the population’s daily struggles of surviving and coping with harsh realities. Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, recently launched an online campaign calling for voters registration – #UhuruDabChallenge – which was met with fierce protestations online, formalised under the #DabOfShame. This thesis will analyse the framing of this clash of priorities on Twitter by looking at the spread and use of one hashtag in particular – #DabOfShame – and one of the subtheme the #KOT community highlighted, that is the country’s hunger and drought crises. Indeed, analysing the #DabOfShame highlights the gap between the state discourse and the subsequent online responses, which has a huge impact on the way pertaining daily issues and their realities are depicted online. In particular, looking at Kenya’s most salient and recurrent difficulties – the hunger and drought crises – pinpoints how the users shed light on the problems, thus “framing” an opposition of concerns, and pushing the political elite to address them. Interestingly, the users and content analysis of this specific hashtag give insights into the political socialisation processes that Twitter enables and the platform it provides for the Kenyan connected generation to express its grievances in the everyday context. Eventually, this can inform discussions on the possibility of social media to influence the government’s agenda and produce a united common front in a context of political polarisation. This, however, also reveals concerning trends in the way Twitter is used by the political elite in Kenya, in particular by its president, which suggests that social media are possibly developing into new podiums on which political legitimacy is fought and gained.Show less
The African Union (AU), whose main objective is to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development of the African region, presents itself as an energetic and ambitious driving force for change...Show moreThe African Union (AU), whose main objective is to coordinate and intensify cooperation for development of the African region, presents itself as an energetic and ambitious driving force for change in the continent’s human rights landscape. In June 2014, the AU adopted the Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statue of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, often referred to as the Malabo Protocol. The Malabo Protocol extends the jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR) and empowers it to try serious crimes of international concern such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Although the ACJHR is not yet an operational court, it has the potential to bring positive contributions to a continent tormented by persistent conflicts and a culture of impunity. AU member states now stand before various paths in the realization of human rights and they have been involved in an ongoing discussion on Universal Jurisdiction and its life-form, the International Criminal Court (ICC). A thorough consideration of all the grounds for the AU’s decision to give the African Court jurisdiction over international crimes will then show that the process has been motivated by other reasons than late anti-ICC sentiment alone. This study will not only examine the ICC versus Africa debate, it will also go beyond it. In this way, an African perspective will be offered that explains a larger focus on regional processes of African human rights law not only as a result of growing anti-ICC sentiment. Instead, it will be argued that there has been a legal and historical necessity for the development of an African perspective to international human rights law that is not necessarily meant to duplicate or impede on the work of the ICC.Show less
