General election has underscored importance of mainstream media

Media covering a past function in Sironga, Nyamira County. [Sammy Omingo, Standard]

There have been claims in many quarters that the exponential growth of social media has seen it overtake legacy media platforms; television, print and radio as the preferred source of news in Kenya. Many claimed that the 2022 elections would be followed largely on social media and not mainstream media.

According to the Communication Authority (CA), there were 59 million connected mobile phone devices in 2021 with 53.4 per cent of them being smartphones.