Hybrid rallies and a rally-centric campaign: the case of Kenya’s 2022 elections

Scholars tend to present either face-to-face or mediatised audiences as the principal target for election campaign rallies. However, a close eye on staging of, and popular engagement with, rallies during Kenya's 2022 elections reveals that they constituted hybrid form of political communication simultaneously targeted with tailored messages. Not only were at all levels characterised by such hybridity but also presidential level, came dominate candidates' diaries traditional social media coverage them leading what I coin rally-centric campaign. This paper analyses these empirical realities implications how we should study conceptualise campaigns. It does so focusing relationship between rallies, particular focus media.