By Hilary Kimuyu
Sunday August 7, 2022
Google has shared data on top trending searches and most
queried questions on its search engine revealing what Kenyans have been
searching for between July 3 to August 1.
The trending questions on Kenya elections included; ‘when is
the Kenya election’, ‘when will the campaign end for the 2022 election’, ‘when
are the elections in Kenya’ and ‘who is in charge of a polling station,’ in
that order.
Other top questions on the elections that Kenyans searched
for include ‘who will win 2022 election in Kenya’, ‘how many days to election
in Kenya 2022’, ‘how long after election is president sworn in’, ‘when was 2013
general election held’, ‘why 2017 elections were nullified’ and ‘how long does
it take to swear in a new president in Kenya.’
According to Google, the trends also show Kenyans went
online to keep tabs on political parties and their respective presidential
candidates.
David Mwaure Waihiga emerged was the trending candidate,
which means there was a higher spike in searches about him compared to the
others, followed by William Ruto, Raila Odinga and George Wajackoyah
respectively. Trending searches are the searches that had the highest traffic
over a specific period.
“This is a critical time in Kenya's democracy and it’s great
to see that people are collectively turning to Google Search to help them find
answers to their biggest questions about the elections,” said Sharon Machira,
Google’s Communications and Public Affairs Manager.
Live elections update
She added that, they will partner with ReutersGoogle and
launch a Live Elections Results One-Box on August 9 at 2PM.
This tool will post presidential results as they trickle in
from polling stations 5 minutes after they are announced by the Independent
Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and will enhance Kenyans’ experience
on Google Search.
The live elections update portal will be in English and
Kiswahli and will see results posted within 5 minutes after they are announced
by IEBC.
A notification will then be sent forthwith to every user.
The portal will also display party colours with respect to every candidates’
name and image as well as the total counted vote of every presidential
candidate.
Also active during the electioneering period, is Google’s
Harassment Manager Tool that enables users to detect comments that are most
likely to be toxic and mute or block perpetrators of harassment or hide
harassing replies.
Kenyans, especially those vulnerable to online abuse such as
journalists, activists, and politicians, will be able to review posts based on
hashtag, username, keyword or date.
The Google Harassment Manager Tool was built by Jigsaw, a
unit within Google that explores threats to open societies and builds
technology that inspires scalable solutions, in collaboration with Twitter.
To detect potentially harmful comments, it uses Jigsaw’s
Perspective API, which uses machine learning to identify “toxic” language. A
language is considered toxic if it is rude, disrespectful or likely to make
someone leave a conversation.
Here are the Google July Search Trends
Trending questions on
the election, past month
1. When is the Kenya election?
2. When will the campaign end for 2022 election?
3. When are the elections in Kenya?
4. Who is in charge of a polling station?
5. When will campaign start for 2022 election?
6. How many days to election in Kenya 2022?
7. How long after election is president sworn in?
8. When was 2013 general election held?
9. Why 2017 elections were nullified?
10. How long does it take to swear in a new president in
Kenya?
Top questions on the
election, past month:
1. Who will win 2022 election in Kenya?
2. Will Raila win 2022 election?
3. How many days to election in Kenya?
4. When is the election in Kenya?
5. Who is likely to be the president of Kenya in 2022
6. When will campaign end for 2022 election?
7. Who is in charge of elections in a polling station in
Kenya?
8. When will campaign start for 2022 election?
9. How long after election is president sworn in?
10. When was 2013 general election held?
Trending candidates:
(Trending searches are the searches that had the highest amount of traffic over
a specific period.)
1. David Mwaura Waihiga
2. William Ruto
3. Raila Odinga
4. George Wajackoyah
Top Searched
Candidates: (If the share of search interest for all candidates totals to
100%, this data represents the percentage)
1. William Ruto - 63%
2. Raila Odinga - 34%
3. George Wajackoyah - 2%
4. David Mwaura Waihiga - 1%
Political Parties
ranked by search interest:
1. Agano Party - 48%
2. Roots Party - 39%
3. Azimio la Umoja Party - 9%
4. Kenya Kwanza Party - 4%
Trending political
parties: (Trending searches are the searches that had the highest amount of
traffic over a specific period.)
1. Agano Party
2. Azimio la Umoja Party
3. Kenya Kwanza Party
4. Roots Party