Ethnic stereotypes and the ideological manifestations of ethnicity in Kenyan cyber communities

Abstract

This article is informed by a series of Internet texts that were collected in the
months leading to the 2007 general elections in Kenya. It explores the ethnic stereotype, linking it to ideas of ethnicity and power, ‘othering’ and the constructed nature of stereotypes. It asks a number of questions, including: Is there signifi cance to the fact that the stereotypes under study were being
circulated in the months leading to the 2007 general elections? In what ways were the subjects of the stereotypes written, and how do they betray ideological underpinnings of stereotype usage generally in Kenya?