In Kenya, Twitter is more than a social networking gadget: it's becoming a lifeline. The east African country is the continent's second biggest user of Twitter, after South Africa, with 2.5m tweets sent in the last three months. Kenyans have found ways to make the online tool fill the information gaps left by poverty and traditional methods of communication.

Computers are unaffordable and inaccessible for many living in Kenya, so an SMS platform has been used to make Twitter more accessible – over 50% of tweets sent in Africa come from phones. A recent report shows that African tweeters are young, with an average age of between 20 and 29, against a worldwide average age of 39.

But from crime fighting to community support, as this al-Jazeera report shows, social media are becoming an important tool for every section of Kenyan society.

See the stats: this infographic shows how Twitter use is spreading across Africa: