MWAURA: Media gave Al-Shabaab free publicity

What you need to know:

  • The world media — newspapers, news agencies and broadcasting organisations — used information supplied by Al-Shabaab as news.
  • Al-Shabaab manipulated the media to circulate information about its version of the attack, which was in itself the message. We can strike our enemies outside Somalia at a place and time of our choice, Al-Shabaab was telling the world.
  • The attack on Westgate, which attracts large numbers of shoppers, especially over the weekend, gave Al-Shabaab opportunity to kill large numbers of people in one place and attract the international media.

Torn by internal squabbles and having been driven from all strategic areas in Somalia by African Union and Kenya Defence Forces troops, Al-Shabaab is at its weakest.

Yet, with the mounting of the four-day siege of the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, it stage-managed a propaganda coup. Thanks to the worldwide web.

Through micro blogging, using Twitter as its conduit, the terrorist organisation had the whole world listening. Kenya tried to do the same, but the battle on Twitter was seemingly won by Al-Shabaab.

Authorities failed to get their act together. There was too much confusion, contradictions, and a singular lack of coordination in dissemination of information or misinformation on the attack.

On the other hand, while its fighters targeted civilians at the mall, Al-Shabaab seamlessly staged another offensive on the Internet, ridiculing Kenya and justifying the bloodshed on the “flagrant massacre of Muslims in Somalia” by Kenyan troops.

The world media — newspapers, news agencies and broadcasting organisations — used information supplied by Al-Shabaab as news.

On Wednesday, for example, BBC rebroadcast the claim by Al-Shabaab that 137 hostages had died, in contradiction of the statement by President Uhuru Kenyatta on the same day that 72 people, including six security personnel and five of the terrorists, had died.

PROPAGANDA

Throughout the invasion, propaganda by Al-Shabaab reigned supreme through the social media and the major information systems.

And the terror group achieved many objectives. It gained free publicity. It warned and frightened populations even beyond Kenyan borders, as far away as Ethiopia and Burundi. And, it probably gained recruits through its bravado.

Al-Shabaab manipulated the media to circulate information about its version of the attack, which was in itself the message. We can strike our enemies outside Somalia at a place and time of our choice, Al-Shabaab was telling the world.

Since 2011, the group has adopted the Internet as its primary communication medium. Through the worldwide web and major world information systems, it has the power to deal damaging psychological blows and cause mass trauma, as the Westgate episode clearly demonstrates.

PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE

It’s clear they were more interested in the psychological than the physical damage. It was more interested in spreading fear, intimidation, and insecurity. That’s why it chose its target well to maximise psychological impact.

Westgate was a symbolic structure, just like the World Trade Centre in New York. The extensive international media coverage heightened the impact.

The attack on Westgate, which attracts large numbers of shoppers, especially over the weekend, gave Al-Shabaab opportunity to kill large numbers of people in one place and attract the international media.

It gave it the appearance of being able to confront KDF, a far superior opponent, directly and to achieve some form of superiority, even it was only for a few fleeting days. Al-Shabaab is clearly well aware of the power of the media.