Gen Z protests raise social media use to record levels
A young man uses his phone during a memorial concert on July 7 at Uhuru Park in Nairobi for those killed during the anti-government protests.
Various social media platforms have recorded a sharp rise in usage in the quarter when the Zoomer generation (Gen Z) staged protests across the country, largely mobilised on digital platforms.
Facebook, which is currently the most used social media platform in the country, is now used by over half of Kenyans, marking the first time a social media app has crossed the 50 per cent mark in usage, latest data by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows.
Other platforms like WhatsApp, TikTok and Twitter have also seen a surge in usage, potentially arising from their increasingly important role as information sources during the period of the protests that went on for weeks on specific days.
According to the CA data, during the quarter to June this year, Facebook usage recorded a 2.6 per cent rise to 52 per cent, from the previous quarter’s 49.5 per cent, marking a cumulative rise of 6.8 per cent since July last year.
WhatsApp usage rose by 1.5 per cent to 48.5 per cent of the population aged 15 and above, while X users increased by 2.1 per cent to 12.8 per cent of the population.
Usage of video-sharing platform TikTok saw the sharpest rise in the period, hitting 28.1 per cent from the previous quarter’s 23 per cent, representing a 5 per cent rise and a cumulative 8.8 per cent increase since last July.
Few platforms saw a drop in usage, among them Instagram, Telegram and LinkedIn, all of which have traditionally recorded low usage among Kenyans, with each being used by at most 13 per cent of the population.
The rise in the usage of the other mainstream platforms was accompanied by a surge in internet accessibility, especially among the Gen Z age group and younger Millennials (ages 18 to 34).
Over the period, the proportion of Kenyans aged 18 to 24 who accessed the internet increased to 78 per cent from 77 per cent the previous quarter, while those aged 25 to 34 increased to 68 per cent from 67 per cent, according to the CA data.
Access to the internet through smartphones also surged by over 10 per cent to 98.6 per cent from 87.2 per cent the previous quarter, indicating an increased use of the internet for leisure purposes such as social media.
