Benin – December 7 crisis: how influencer Alain Kenneth weighed in on the battle for public opinion
Why and how did Benin escape a wave of manipulation around a supposed coup d’état on December 7? In an interview with ESAE TV, the Ivorian pastor and influencer Camille Makosso reveals the central role played by Beninese TikToker Alain Kenneth Adjadohoun in stabilizing public opinion through social networks.
SUMMARY
At the height of rumors of a coup d’État in Benin, while some digital platforms were buzzing, a face stood out on the ground and in live online broadcasts. It was Alain Kenneth Adjadohoun. According to Camille Makosso, it is this active, visible and assertive presence that helped cut off attempts to destabilize the country.
Invited to ESAE TV, the Ivorian influencer explains the deeper reasons for his public positions in favor of Benin. Contrary to other African states that he says he deliberately refused to promote, Camille Makosso says he came to Cotonou to dismantle the manipulation orchestrated, in his view, by certain communicators in the AES space. He intends to prove that Benin was neither in an institutional crisis nor on the brink of a coup.
Alain Kenneth, a key figure in patriotic communication?
It is in this tense context that Alain Kenneth’s role takes on its full dimension. Camille Makosso does not stint on praise for him. He recounts their first collaboration during a dispute involving Gabonese and Malian communities on social networks, a conflict calmed thanks to a live broadcast followed by nearly 15,000 people. An experience which, according to him, revealed the Beninese TikToker’s ability to mobilize, calm and reorient digital debates.
On December 7, while rumors of a coup d’État circulated, Alain Kenneth was, according to Makosso, “the only Beninese influencer in the streets,” holding multiple live streams to reassure the population. A communication strategy deemed decisive. “When a coup d’État is legitimized by the mass outflow of the population, the country is finished”, insists Makosso. He praised the Beninese people’s choice not to give in to panic.
For ESAE TV’s guest, Alain Kenneth played a guiding role, both logistical and symbolic. He facilitated his access to certain places and allowed him to observe, on the ground, the normality of the situation. More than that, he helped him build a counter-narrative against the alarmist discourses spread online.
Beyond the December 7 episode, Camille Makosso believes that Alain Kenneth’s action reflects an openly assumed patriotism. He even goes so far as to suggest official recognition for “services rendered to the nation” in a regional context marked by coups d’État and tensions where digital communication can become a weapon of mass destabilization.
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