Abstract:
This study examined crisis response by the office of the government spokesperson of Kenya during the Nairobi Dusitd2 complex terrorist attack that happened in 2019. Crisis communication has become common in today’s unpredictable environment. Therefore, organizations and governments are increasingly finding themselves at challenging times when confronted by events that threaten their normal operations. Thus, this study looked at the existing gap by examining the government response through the office of the government spokesperson and also the messages that were shared to the traditional media as well as the public response on Twitter. The study employed a qualitative content analysis approach where key informants were interviewed and online conversation around Twitter was extracted and analyzed. Two leading newspapers were analyzed- Daily Nation and the Standard Newspaper. The study found out that the government response strategy to DusitD2 terror attack was better than the previous response strategies when a crisis occurred. Staff from the office of the government spokesperson indicated that they found bolstering strategies as the most used strategies. There were also others with the opinion that the government needed to improve some of the ways it handled the crisis. Because of the DusitD2 attack that happened, the office of the government spokesperson in Kenya needs to continue refining its communication prowess through reviewing its communication strategies especially through learning from crises they have responded to. Key among the strategies they should use include using social media and newspapers to get regular updates. This will give them opportunity to hear what others are saying through these channels.
