Ushahidi Monitors Kenyan Elections with Uchaguzi Partnership

The crowdsourcing technology company Ushahidi announces a platform to monitor Kenya’s General Election on August 8, 2017, in partnership with InfoNET and The Constitution & Reform Education Consortium (CRECO) under the tagline “Linda Kura Yako,” which translates to “Protect your vote’.  The platform - Uchaguzi (“Election” in Kiswahili)  will monitor incidences of electoral offences, violence, peace activities and to inform Kenyans on how their counties and constituencies voted during the August 8th General Elections. The Constitution & Reform Education Consortium (CRECO) is providing 700 monitors located at various polling stations around the country as well as administrative support. InfoNET, a technology partner, is offering the Action Response Team, Analysis and Partnership Platforms.

The hope is that the Kenyan Elections will be peaceful, but if there is any irregularities the 700+ Uchaguzi observers, general public and trained volunteers will be able to report electoral incidences to:

The Uchaguzi Short Code (20166),  

Twitter: @uchaguzi,

Facebook: @Uchaguzi2017Kenya or directly through Facebook Messenger, 

at https://uchaguzi.or.ke/views/create.

Uchaguzi will continue to monitor activities throughout the campaign period to the actual election day. Between August 5-9 Uchaguzi will operate a 24-hour Situation Room.

The short code for Uchaguzi has been advertised on YouTube, Facebook and radio. Ushahidi has also partnered with Facebook to make it possible to report to Uchaguzi via Facebook Messenger. The project has also engaged the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Police, Judiciary, Human Rights Groups, Civil Society and Media through online conversations and live chat where the institutions provide feedback to conversations and engage citizens in real time. Uchaguzi is the most collaborative deployment of the Ushahidi platform to date, having worked with key actors in the humanitarian sector, human rights activists, private sector, government and the technology community in Kenya.  This is the fourth time  that the platform will be used to promote citizen participation in election monitoring initiatives in Kenya. The first instance of the crowdsourcing platform Ushahidi was created in the midst of the 2008 post election violence as a tool to map violence and respond to the crisis.  The platform was also used during the August 2010 constitutional referendum vote and the 2013 Kenya General Election.

To embed the real-time Uchaguzi map, timeline, or a specific report in your website or post, click “share” at Uchaguzi.or.ke.

About Ushahidi

Ushahidi is a global tech company born in Kenya during the 2008 election that empowers people to raise their voices and equips organizations with the tools they need to listen and respond better to their audiences. Its crowdsourcing data platform enables organizations to better collect, manage, visualize, and respond to data across various communication channels, including SMS, web form, mobile app, email, Twitter, and Facebook.

About Uchaguzi

Uchaguzi is an Elections initiative developed in 2008 in  partnership between three organisations: Ushahidi, Constitution and Reform Education Consortium (CRECO), and InfoNet.

The Role of Uchaguzi initiative is to ensure that Citizens participation in the Electoral process and access to Electoral Services. The Uchaguzi Ecosystem brings together Observers from CRECO 700 + monitors located at various polling stations around the country that perform the important task of Verification. The Ecosystem also brings the Action Response Teams through InfoNET  that comprises of the EMBs (Electoral Management Bodies) to respond and action all verified reports. The Action Response Team also works with a team of Analysts to give a state of the Nation Report throughout the Electoral period. Uchaguzi toll free shortcode 20166 is being used for SMS messages countrywide. Ushahidi is the lead technology partner deploying the Ushahidi map through which all incidences and reports are analyzed.For more information: https://www.ushahidi.com/uchaguzi-support/

More information can be found at www.uchaguzi.or.ke, on the Uchaguzi Facebook Page, and www.ushahidi.com.

Press contacts

Nathaniel Manning, Chief Executive Officer, Ushahidipress@ushahidi.comWebsite: ushahidi.comTwitter: @Ushahidi

To embed the real-time Uchaguzi map, timeline, or a specific report in your website or post, click “share” at Uchaguzi.or.ke.