What was meant to satisfy a mere need to connect with friends via the Web has grown into a tool for freedom. All you have to do is surf YouTube videos, blogs, Facebook and Twitter to realize that social media has become more influential than some of society’s most powerful men and women.

Such Internet venues have ceased to be just for “meeting and greeting”. Take, for example, the 2011 revolution in Egypt. When most print and other forms of communications were blocked, the Internet provided much-needed space for both mobilizing and rallying pro-democracy supporters. While social media fueled the fight in North Africa, how has it been revolutionizing politics in East Africa?

How Africa Tweets, a recent study by international consultancy firm Portland and Tweetminster, establishes that 68% of all Twitter users in Africa use this medium to monitor news. It also ranks Kenyans as the second most-active Twitter participants in the continent, after South Africans.

Professor Paul Mbatia chairs the Department of Sociology at the University of Nairobi and is an expert in surveying relevant trends. “In my lingo, we term social media as digital technology. It’s now so powerful that a lot of the public don’t buy newspapers to access news on the socio-economic and political fronts,” he says. As Kenyans make their way to the ballot box in the year ahead, their votes will count more than ever.

After all, we’re now voting under a new constitution and with the 2007/2008 post-election violence, one of Kenya’s darkest hours, still lingering on our minds. And election monitoring will be more critical than ever. Such scrutiny involves keen observation of independent parties to ensure that the process meets international standards. Could the Internet cast a keener eye on the whole electoral scene better thantraditional media?

Among elections groups who are applying social media is Kenya Elections Observation Group (ELOGThe organization observes voter registration, monitoring implementation of political parties, campaign monitoring, advocacy and media monitoring. “We mainly use the social-media platform to update users on topical issues within the electoral environment. We encourage debate and voice opinions on the same,” says Mulle Musau of ELOG’s Programs Desk.

Mulle admits that it’s difficult to filter the kind of opinions that comes through social media. However, ELOG is currently employing two control measures: They take down inflammatory statements from their site and block users who post salacious comments. Monitoring groups must be very vigilant about the information being passed through social media, reckons Mbatia. “However, an expert will miss out on the characteristic of the respondents. How old are they or of what sex are they?

The internet generalizes and doesn’t represent the entire population,” says the professor. “Internet use is associated with the young, educated middle class from urban areas.” Mbatia’s advice regarding the freedom of users as applied to election monitoring is simple: Exercise caution!