Wednesday August 4th, as Kenyans cast their votes on the proposed draft constitution the Voice of Kibera community was reporting on their experiences in Kibera. 12 SMS reporters and 10 video journalists were on the ground from the break of dawn until after the votes were tallied to tell the world what was happening in their community.
SMS @ 6:49 am: Mobilisation started as early as 4am with youths waking up people by blowing vuvuzela here in kianda
SMS @ 8:03 am: At kibera primary skul, thea is good organisation. Pple r being asistd incase of a problem by the local youth.
SMS @ 10:18 am: Finaly,prime minister is here at old kibera p.s to cast his historic vote.
SMS @ 2:33pm: red or green,we are all black,lets maintain peace.youth 4 peace,kibera mashimoni.
The SMS reporters team met to debrief about the experience and discuss any challenges they encountered and successes to build upon for next time. Of the 11 reporters, 3 were not able to send any SMS messages on voting day. This was not due to instability or challenges but to the professionalism of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC). All three reporters were serving as poll clerks at polling stations around Lang’ata constituency. Unlike 2007, when voting way coordinated by the now disbanded Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), the IIEC took all appropriate measures to reduce the possibility of corruption. The mobile phones of all polling clerks were confiscated for the duration of the vote and they were warned against communicating information about the vote until the final official tallies were released.
Three of our other SMS reporters acted as official poll monitors who spent the day observing the activities at the polls. They too were impressed with the conduct of the IIEC and commended them on their leadership and coordination. One energetic poll monitor stayed from morning until the last vote was counted late in the evening. He was happy to report he was involved in negotiations over the validity of spoiled votes.
One major challenge echoed by all of our six official poll monitors and clerks was civic education. In the Lang’ata polling stations our group reported that between 3 and 10 percent of total ballots cast were spoiled. Many people used marks that weren’t the official check, x or dash that was required by the IIEC. A popular mark was a signature, which resulted in a spoiled vote. There was a call for continued civic education, especially with 2012 around the corner.
Kibera News Network highlighted the Referendum day events in Kibera, including celebrations the night before the historic vote. To watch more, check out the videos below.
Today is an important day! Kenyans around the country will turn out to vote on whether or not to adopt the proposed draft constitution. This is the first time Kenyans will cast their votes since the disputed election of 2007, which led to post-election violence in pockets around the country – such as Kibera, where violence claimed the lives of many. Kibera has been recently designated as a potential “hotspot” of tension – along with 28 other sites in the country. However, residents of Kibera are optimistic that today will signal a more peaceful future.
The Voice of Kibera platform, a community information sharing website by and for Kibera residents, is using SMS, photos and video to document the Referendum process in the villages of Kibera. The Kibera News Network video reporters will providing special coverage around the clock. Join us and watch Voice of Kibera and KNN today and over the next few days for local coverage by our team!
Both the Voice of Kibera and the Kibera News Network teams will be reporting “live” today and throughout the week. Watch for KNN’s updates several times daily and SMS reporting continuously.
Members of KNN checking out their Youtube channel
Ten of the new KNN video reporters and four editors will be covering the experiences, thoughts, and predictions of Kibera voters while looking out for signs of any disturbance or intimidation. Videos will appear on the Voice of Kibera site as well as the KNN Youtube channel.
An important piece of the Referendum focus is the links to the larger Uchaguzi project. Read more about Uchaguzi and Ushahidi here.
Yesterday, four members of Editorial Board of Voice of Kibera participated in a administrator’s training for the Uchaguzi platform, which is set to crowdsource reports, as well as information from 520 official poll monitors around the country. Reports coming through the Voice of Kibera shortcode (3002), including those from our SMS reporters and the Editorial Board, will feed into the larger Uchaguzi platform. The team is excited to roll their sleeves up, report their hearts out and be able to share their experiences through Voice of Kibera!
Voice of Kibera Editorial Board in deep deliberations about the Uchaguzi platform (Gerry, Fredrick, Sande and Josphat)
Josphat (front left) is excited about Voice of Kibera's role in Referendum reporting!
The videographers are also using the 3002 shortcode to quickly report any newsworthy events, and we in the situation room will forward SMS we receive to the video team to investigate. Those with internet access via computer or phone can also follow the SMS streams and video newsfeeds or post their own reports, photos and video. A complete news loop! Feel free to add your comments as well and submit your reports if you are here in Kenya.
Post by Jamie & Erica – photos of Editorial Board by Jonathan Schuler
The Voice of Kibera Editorial Board Team (left to right) Jamie Lundine, Josphat Keya, Erica Hagen, Melissa Tully, Sande Wycliffe, Fredrick Bary, Jeremy Omondi, (front) Douglas Namale
In April 2010, we held the first Voice of Kibera workshop. The overall goal was to introduce the Voice of Kibera platform to community members. We wanted to understand how the website and SMS reporting tool could benefit the local community. We also hoped to recruit some local talent to participate in the effort to create online content by and for the residents of Kibera.
We met our goal! The workshop was a success! One of the most fabulous ideas to come out of the workshop was the suggestion of creating an Editorial Board that would be responsible for site administration, including verifying incoming messages. The Board members would also act as SMS reporters within their community, sending in messages to let Kibera and the world know what’s happening around them.
So, since May 2010, Erica, Melissa and I (the Voice of Kibera technical advisers) have been working closely with the Voice of Kibera Editorial Board.
Douglas Namale
Douglas is a journalist, an editor at the Kibera Journal and a mapper with Map Kibera. He is interested in information communication technology (ICT) and is an advocate for ICT literacy, particularly among the youth. Douglas first heard about the Voice of Kibera project through his involvement with Map Kibera. Douglas says he was immediately supportive of the idea, as ” it was simply fulfilling my aspiration of being a voice of the community through citizen journalism. This is particularly important to Douglas because he says he wants “the community [to] tell their story themselves [rather] than waiting for the main stream media to talk about it, which in some cases is biased or exaggerated.” As a pioneer of community journalism in Kibera, Douglas saw Voice of Kibera as a project “worth participating in” – specifically to increase awareness of the ICT tools and citizen journal to more people in his community. When not working hard on his many community activities, Douglas enjoys adventures. He tells us that his favourite food is matoke (a traditional Kenyan dish of boiled plantain).
Sande Wycliffe
“I am a go getter! If you stand in my way, I don’t worry because you will never ever deny me the opportunity to get what I want.”
Sande is a community leader who is motivated to see “a more positively transformed Kibera [in terms] of, infrastructure, information and knowledge exchange and above all unity of purpose for [the] people [of Kibera].” Sande hopes that he can work together with other community leaders to achieve change. His involvement in Voice of Kibera began after he attended a presentation on the project at a Global Giving workshop earlier this year. Sande says he was eagar to learn more about the Ushahidi platform – upon which the Voice of Kibera site is built -Â to use it, made me have a feel of getting involved for In the back of his mind, Sande says “I saw it to be a super nice platform for information dissemination – it acts as an online media tool for Kibera and its people.” Sande notes that the project is already beginning to provide the world with tangible proof of what happens in Kibera, as opposed to media propaganda that the people of Kibera have always seen.
Fredrick Bary
Fredrick is a member of a community youth group and is involved in environmental issues, such as tree planting, community clean ups. He is also a peer HIV/AIDS educator, which includes encouraging youth to be more creative in how they spend their time; he spreads the message “invest in [your] time and [don’t just] spend it.” Fredrick hopes that his peers will get involved in youth programmes as a way of empowering themselves through engaging in differen activities that allow them to affect positive change within the community – just as Fredrick has done himself. Fredrick’s involvement with Voice of Kibera began when he learned about the project through a friend. When asked why he’s involved in the project, Fredrick says “more often people associate Kibera [with] violence and all sorts of negativity, giving the world at large a negative mentality toward Kibera. [I’m thankful for] the Voice of Kibera because it gives out the true image of Kibera, highlighting [the community’s] grievances as well as their views in all areas of life; it’s through Voice of Kibera that one gets precise, reliable and up to date happenings within Kibera without exaggeration as some media houses do. I feel great when I give out the truth regarding Kibera.”
Josphat Keya
Josphat is currently the Program Coordinator at the Hot Sun Foundation, a charitable trust based in Kibera. As Program Coordinator, Josphat plans events and coordinates the day to day operations at Hot Sun, an organisation that empowers youth through media and arts. He is also involved in collecting community stories through Kibera TV, which is how he heard of the Voice of Kibera project. Josphat states however that his involvement with the project is more than just as a representative of Hot Sun Foundation. He says he is also “representing the voice of some youths in my community.†He goes on to say that “As the name states, Voice of Kibera is literally…a voice for the people of Kibera – a voice [through] which they can tell what it is happening around them.†He says “I feel privileged to be part of this initiative.†Outside of his work, Josphat loves doing research. He says “I love going deep into issues that people tend to shy away from, not to just know what it is that is making them to shy away but to understand the reasons behind it – you never know maybe I can help.†But the thing Josphat loves doing the most is “interacting with people, socializing or simply making new friends. I see this as a powerful tool in bringing people together and learning what you had not known before about a particular people; in doing this you end up appreciating the people you meet.â€
Gerry Omondi
Gerry has training in Community Based Project Planning & Management and is the deputy administrator with a women’s organisation called Mchanganyiko. His responsibilities with the group include planning and managing the expansion the group’s programmes and resources. He is also involved in strategizing on how the community can benefit from Mchanganyiko’s activities. As part of the organization’s policy, Gerry ensures that the networks Mchanganyiko builds benefit not only the organization, but also the community at large. Gerry says he enjoys the challenging work. He is a coordinator of TEDx Kibera. During a TEDx Kibera presentation, Gerry learned about Map Kibera – the digital mapping project in his community. Gerry says he “ immediately grasped its importance.†Since that time, Gerry says “Map Kibera has steadily emerg[ed] as a powerful tool for not just locating place, but also for influencing the social, political & economic spheres in Kibera and beyond.†Gerry was intrigued by the project and felt that that it was his “call is to be a development ambassador [which is] something I find in common with the rest of the Voice of Kibera team.†He says “connectivity is the overriding fuel [behind my work] and this revolutionary platform is where to be!†Gerry takes his work seriously, but is a compassionate person who understands that empathy, rather than sympathy will allow him to engage with others in his community. Gerry admits he’s a night owl and can often be found watching his favourite football team – Arsenal FC.
Fredrick Bary
