Tweeting Westgate Mall terrorist Attack - Lessons for Child Protection Emergency Responders

Social media is a phenomena revolutionizing emergency communication in Kenya. In the face of increased terrorist attacks that Kenya has experienced recently, Kenyans’ appetite to access and share real time news has also... [ view full abstract ]

Social media is a phenomena revolutionizing emergency communication in Kenya. In the face of increased terrorist attacks that Kenya has experienced recently, Kenyans’ appetite to access and share real time news has also increased. More Kenyans are becoming techno savvy as Kenya lays the groundwork of achieving one of the pillars of Kenya’s Vision 2030 in key sectors that form the foundation of society, for socio-political and economic growth such as infrastructure, science and technology, and innovation (Kenya Vision 2030). The ICT sector in Kenya has accordingly grown immensely, with mobile phones penetration rate striking 80.5% (CAK, 2014). Exponential access to social media platforms has therefore been tremendously made possible by the widespread ownership of mobile phones throughout the country. According to Digital Rand (2015), over 74% of online adults use social media regularly. At the moment, approximately, 4 million Kenyans actively use social media (Hubspot, 2015).
In this paper, we present lessons learnt from the use of social media by Kenyans, during the Westgate Mall terrorist attack in September 2013. Main hashtags generated by the public and specific twitter accounts of individuals; government officials and disaster response organizations/officials were analyzed to draw conclusions.
The paper thus discusses the critical role of emergency responders using and leveraging social media networks to communicate both with the public and among themselves. It points out ethical issues emergency responders must consider when posting and sharing information, especially those of children, during terrorist attacks. It also highlights the need for child protection agencies to proactively consider developing Standard Operating Procedures that will enable them to monitor, synchronize and integrate their social media feeds, as they execute rescue missions and support to child victims, in an event that terrorists target institutions with children – Westgate Mall style.