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Al Shabaab vs Kenya: The Twitter war

15 Dec 2011

A great irony of the cyber age is the way it connects seemingly incongruous and anachronistic opposites in bizarre and unexpected ways. Now the ragtag though powerful Islamist terror group, Al Shabaab, is taking on the Kenyan army on the battlefields of... Twitter.

"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall fight in the Twittersphere." This is a quote from a speech that Winston Churchill never made, but, had he been fighting his wars in the 21st century, he might have. For Twitter is becoming another place for enemy combatants to do battle, although their weapons in this particular battleground are limited to social currency and 140 characters.

Al Shabaab, the Islamic militant group currently fighting a guerrilla war against Kenyan troops in Somalia, is the latest to take its conflict to the social media. Its opponent, Kenya, invaded Somalia to try to wipe out Al Shabaab, was already there, in the form of Kenyan Defence Force (KDF) spokesman Emmanuel Chirchir (@MajorEChirchir) who has swiftly developed a following of more than 10 000, most of whom are charmed by his unabashed jingoism ("Be assured that all Kenyan troops are in good spirits and Steadfast to Mission at Hand") and his donkey paranoia ("selling donkeys to Al Shabaab will undermine our efforts in Somalia", he said once, threatening to bomb large groups of donkeys).

Continue reading the full story on www.freeafricanmedia.com.

Source: Free African Media

Free African Media is an initiative of The Daily Maverick team, in collaboration with journalists from all over Africa. With free, quality media and freedom of expression under attack from just about every corner of African reality, it's become more and more obvious that a concentrated, Africa-wide effort is needed to help the fight, and Free African Media aims to do just that. It will function as a platform dedicated to freedom of expression throughout the continent, as well to helping improve the overall quality of reporting, analysis and opinion Africa-wide. Like Free African Media on Facebook; follow on Twitter at @africanmedia and, to contribute, email moc.aidemnacirfaeerf@krow.

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About Simon Allison

Simon Allison is a specialist in African and Middle East politics, with degrees from Rhodes university and the School of Oriental and African Studies. He lived in Egypt for four years. He also co-authors the politics blog Third World Goes Forth.