Google to launch Kenyan Election You Tube Channel

By Mercy Oyaya

Google will on Friday Launch the 'Kenyan Election You Tube Channel' that will curate content from across You Tube.

This will enable Kenyans view elections related video content at one place.

The 2013 elections in Kenya will be the most closely watched in living memory following the explosion in social media that has occurred since the last elections in 2007/08.

However, this is meant to empower people with information, promote understanding of political issues and trends.

“Access has always been a primary focus for Google and all our initiatives around the elections are aimed at organizing information to make it easy to reach,” explained Ory Okolloh Google policy manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, “Through the launch of the YouTube channel, Kenyans will now be able to follow the latest news and trends on the political scene, and engage with each other. Information drives the decisions we make on a day-to-day basis, and we remain committed to and are keen on sharing as much of it as possible with Kenyans.”

Storyful will also be working to capture the best online footage from Kenya as the country picks its next leader. By maintaining a dedicated YouTube channel for the Kenya 2013 elections, Storyful hopes to bring together all the news, views and grassroots reporting from the Kenyan election trail in one convenient online portal, with playlists capturing some of the most important democratic themes.

The YouTube channel will also host the live-streams of Kenya's presidential debate series, while you can monitor and participate in the conversation using the most popular hashtags in the Kenyan twittersphere.

The launch comes after Google Kenya unveiled its election hub where voters, journalists and politicians can easily track news.