The timing trap: Misinformation, disinformation, and the limits of fact-checking in Kenya’s 2022 elections

This article advances the concept of the ‘timing trap’ to explain why fact-checking struggles to interrupt mis/disinformation during elections, even in well-resourced verification environments. The trap arises from three interacting dynamics: the speed of false information flows, the epistemic demands of professional verification, and the political conditions shaping how corrections are received. Using Kenya’s 2022 election as a least-likely case and drawing on practitioner interviews and analysis of approximately 150 fact-checks, the article identifies three mechanisms through which the trap manifested: procedural and infrastructural delays, legitimacy contests and asymmetric trust, and an archival orientation positioning fact-checking as a long-term resource. The trap’s severity varies with disinformation coordination, political polarisation and institutional distrust, and can be partially mitigated through anticipatory communication, cross-sectoral coalitions and verification literacy. These findings reframe fact-checking’s contribution to digital peacebuilding: its value lies in building informational infrastructure – archives, norms and literacy – that strengthens democratic deliberation over time.