Crowd Sourced Journalism-A newdimension in Kenyan Media

TITLE: Secure neighborhoods Kenya

A Brief Background

Insecurity has always been a slippery affair that subsequent regimes have for a long time failed to address, but only handle it with kid gloves and successfully fail to nip the vice at the bud.

Murang’a County is located in Central Kenya.  Here, insecurity thrives.

Cases of motorcyclists losing their motorbikes, and sadly their lives are a near daily occurrence in this locality. Motorists are neither spared by a wave of robbery that has swept Murang’a County over the last few years.

Vigilante groups and unlawful formations continue to guard this area, for a fee, thus giving extortionist gangs like the dreaded Mungiki gang, a field day as they collect what they call “protection fees” from all and sundry, from the motorists, to motorbike taxis, commonly referred to as bodaboda, to businessmen and to the impoverished residents, despite police presence in the area.

As we take a walk into the lush green and hilly landscape of Kamune village at the heart of Mathioya District, we realize that the number of people has greatly reduced to just a few, and the graves have soared in numbers, presumably bearing the remains of the young men who lose their lives to robbery, many of whom are bodaboda operators.

At the Keni bus stop along the Murang’a –Kiria-ini road dozens of bodaboda operators are whiling away waiting for passengers, and on sighting us, they abandon whatever they are doing and ambush us, offering  to ferry us with their bikes to wherever we wished to go, of course for a dime.

After the usual pleasantries we   set out to ask them about the security situation in the area, and in their place of work. At this point, most of them are suddenly disinterested, and look at us suspiciously. In this locality, we are told, no one dares talk about insecurity fearing repercussions from the prime perpetrators of robbery and violence, The Mungiki, who are said to lurk in the area.

We talk to them about the numerous deaths that have been meted to bodaboda operators in the area, their disappearance and how they are later discovered in thickets with parts of their bodies chopped off their badly mutilated bodies,and that’s when they become interested.           

After some minutes the whole group is now surrounding us and narrating to us chilling details of how that happened to their colleagues, how they remained vulnerable to robberies. They live in fear, we learn.

They tell us how the police tried to ease the situation by providing emergency numbers  in case they cited a suspect, or in case they were in trouble, but years down the line, the problem persists.

There is need for a bottom to top approach that will incorporate and revolve on the participation of the local community that will reflect on the security situation of this part of the country.

Objectives

SENEKEN is a combination of abbreviations derived from the words, Secure Neighborhoods Kenya, which is a crowd sourcing platform that seeks to collect data from Murang’a residents for several months, Say from October- December, and come up with a conclusive report of how the bikes are stolen and the number of operators who are killed as a result in given neighborhood. 

For instance, x number of operators go missing every month, and out of those y/100 meet their death

To achieve this all the bikes at Keni stage will be fitted with Global Positioning System devices which will communicate with a small SENEKEN nerve center .Monitors at the nerve center will track the marked bikes on a 24/7 basis. Operators will then be given numbers which they can call in case of any robbery.

A qualitative analysis of the bodaboda s in the monitor list will be done after every month.

The analysis will give details of where the stolen bikes are smuggled to , and the operators will be asked the number plates of the bikes which have gone missing, after which the police will liaise with Seneken to net the culprits.

This data will be invaluable to journalists in the area who were greatly interested with this project.

The provincial administration and the Police in area were also enthusiastic about the platform and vowed to work with us.

The local community is the largest beneficiary of this project since robbery will be wiped out of their neighborhoods

Crowd sourcing tools

Several crowd sourcing tools have been used by the police and the media, which included the use of an emergency number provided to operators to alert police whenever they encountered thugs or problems

Another tool used was the community policing approach where police told locals to report cases of violence but sadly, the two approaches failed to gain any fruits, in particular was the second approach where locals feared repercussions  if the perpetrators ever knew about them, including the  threat of death.

This was a major challenge that made the two approaches fail.

To effectively deal with the shortcoming, SENEKEN intends to use short message services, SMS where a monitoring center for analyzing the SMSes will be set up.

The smses will be sent by the operators in case a bike goes missing, after which the specific bike is put under surveillance.

Safaricom, Airtel, Orange and Yu, all mobile phone service subscribers, will provide a short number for SMSes like 4040, which everyone will use to send the messages.

Expected results

After sometime, the number of robberies will significantly go down after the capture of many robbers by the police

The security situation in the area will hugely improve

The Kenya police will be empowered to act swiftly and precisely in case of any theft

Secure neighborhoods will emerge in the country and people will set up business in the area

Resources needed

-Global positioning devices

-Computers an internet

-Office space complete with stationery

-GPS mast

-Communication lines/wireless phones to reach locals/police/stakeholders

If this project is a success, it will roll to all other parts of the country, which experience similar incidences of insecurity, and will therefore create a working partnership between the police, the local population and the GPS technology to hammer the last nails into the coffin bearing the remains of the vice, INSECURITY.

Editor’s note

This proposal was presented for awards consideration at the The Big Picture Digital Journalism project for the First Crowd sourced Journalism Awards for Africa.
It might not have won any awards but I just wis our politicians could use such approaches to make Kenya a better place to live in.

Special thanks to Murang’a, Mathioya residents for coming out and stating the problem, and to the Big Picture project for inviting me for an awards dinner at the Fairview Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, where I learnt a lot in this new concept of crowd sourced journalism in Kenya.www.facebook.com/amoxers

Not yet Uhuru!

Not yet Uhuru!

My own rendition…..Of a bewitched Uhuru and a confused Mudavadi

Deputy Prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta is a man of many firsts. From rising to power in a record time to his latest installments of political melodrama and the list is endless.

That in 1997 he sought to represent Gatundu south in parliament is common knowledge. And that he was beaten hands down and his political ineptness exposed in spectacular fashion is something we cannot deny

But in  a period of two good years the political novice that was the son of old Jommo had risen to unprecedented heights of political power. In 1999, he had been nominated to parliament, appointed a government minister, given the chairmanship of the all powerful KANU, and it was an open secret he was been groomed to usurp the tenancy of the house on the hill, thanks to retired president Daniel Moi.

There was rightful disquiet within political circles when Uhuru Kenyatta, then a political minion, announced his intention to vie for the country’s top seat, as many wondered how fast he climbed the political ladder, again this coming as an eye opener to all and sundry as we slowly and bitterly learnt that Kenya had owners.

Needless to say the man lost to one Mwai Kibaki who, staring defeat from Moi’s all powerful and handsomely funded project, concocted a coalition with all the political heavyweights to clinch the presidency as Uhuru Kenyatta, once again, lost.

It was in the young years of the coalition that Uhuru Kenyatta was absorbed back into the government as he sought to contest the presidency in 2007, but again shelved his interests in favor of the then incumbent Mwai Kibaki who was facing stiff competition from Raila Odinga and a revamped anti government club of stalwarts who were riding high after defeating Kibaki, and the government in a referendum vote.

Lets jump to his latest installment of his political fairly tale , as he seeks once again, to commandeer the house on the hill, half a century later after his father, Mzee Jommo Kenyatta pulled the country’s strings when it was at its tender, young independent toes.

A few days ago, Uhuru Kenyatta, then the most serious presidential candidate poised to give prime minister Raila Odinga a hard time in race for presidency, cottoned up to a marriage of convenience when he teamed up with DPM Musalia Mudavadi seen as a compromise candidate and the much needed replacement for Uhuru should he and Eldoret north MP William Ruto be hauled to the Hague to answer charges leveled against them by the international criminal court.

In a  roller coaster wedding punctuated by vows of “Jubilee”, Uhuru is said to have been under duress, or whatever that is , or as he claimed, to be under the control of dark forces , maybe those of Satan or “Madimoni” and agreed to back Mudavadi for presidency.

according to Uhuru in his latest testimony to the people of Kenya, he claimed that Mudavadi told him to step down due to his impending case at the Hague that was making him a really hard to sell commodity., and Uhuru bought that, rightfully.

It was after a bit of soul searching that the son of Jommo decided not to vie and not to knock Ruto out of the running mate position.

Drama unfolded a week later when Musalia Mudavadi came out crying that he had been shortchanged in the Jubilee coalition and even wanted out. According to Mudavadi, Uhuru and Ruto drove to his riverside Drive home after realizing that Kalonzo Musyoka and Raila Odinga had teamed up to create the cord coalition, and wanted the former to enter into a collation with them where they allegedly promised him of the presidential position on a jubilee ticket.

That said , it is a shame to see how the so called leader team up to make political outfits that are not in the interest of Kenyans, but aimed at dividing Kenyans along tribal lines.

That’s why we have elected the bad leaders and locked out those leaders who could have transformed Kenya.

This philosophy muttering uhuru is the same man whose dad sowed the seeds of ethnical discord and hatred and perfected the art of dividing Kenyans along tribal lines.

It is common knowledge that Uhuru is after safeguarding their ill gotten wealth which they grabbed in broad day light,

Look at Mudavadi, he is a charming, even tempered politician who could have trounced all opposition had he been nominated as the jubilee flag bearer, but what did he do when he was in parliament? And when he was a vice president? Nothing!

Here is a list of political marriages that will never stand.

1. Uhuru/Mudavadi/Ruto’s Jubilee

People with the same malady are known to gang up together as they console each other of their misfortune. Look at how they poor love to hang out with the poor? Uhuru and Ruto are such for obvious reasons. That was why their political marriage with Mudavadi could not see the light of the day as the later was a clueless outsider who was to be used for their political gains. Who knows if he won the presidency on a jubilee ticket, maybe he would be hauled out of the top seat by a well orchestrated vote of no confidence or he could even be coup de tat’d or even go missing. Go Musalia go! This was not for you. But before you go Mr. Musalia, looks like you have a penchant for freebies? That will never work for you in this country. Go well my brother.

More gloom is however set to rock the jubilee house. An Uhuru presidency is doomed to fall considering the ICC bagaage and the political arithmetics of tribal politics that Kenyans have perfected.

It is an open secret that most Kenyans will not vote in another kikuyu president when the outgoing one is a Kikuyu and while the first president was a kikuyu.

A Mudavadi presidency, a non Kikuyu, was seen by pundits as the winning formulae and the best poised to compete with the organized house that is the Cord comprising of Raila  Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka. And with their mention let’s look at the marriage number two that is doomed.

2. Raila and Kalonzo’s Cord.

The storm before a storm.who does not know Kalonzo is the King of Vigeugeus? Or the biggest and freshest water melon around? He is a reknowned fence sitter who knows just how well to pita kati kati yao.

Now that he gave Raila a chance to bear the flag of Cord and agreed to play second fiddle to raila, and now that he has been annihilated by his own arch rival in the battle of the watermelons, this clearly remains a breeze before the storm, there is no way the Tseikuru man can allow such capitulation even after swearing by his mother’s name that his name must be at the ballot. Let’s wait and see the drama as it unfolds. Yours truly will be on the sidelines to bring you the latest developments as Kalonzo departs from the norm and reclaims his position as the king! Hail the king of all water melons.

Prime mister Raila Odinga is another kettle of fish altogether. He is a political schemer, and has a thick skin for your information. Who was not astounded when the self proclaimed reformer joined Moi in 1998 after his party merged with Moi’s.

Raila cuts the mien of a good leader, but his supporters will cost him the  leadership of this country. Who wants a government where some villains will refuse to pay taxes, rent, fare, bills, etc because they dad Raila is the president. This man has done little to remove the speck that his fans have permanently fixed in is character, fatally destroying his credentials to govern.

3. The Tuju/ Kenneth alliance of Eagles

Billed as the best coalition that could have been voted in by a landslide were the main protagonists able to woo voters with their speckles lives in politics and their issue based campaigns, this group remains  a clueless bunch of politicians who do not know what they want. The best thing remaining fir them is to seek lesser seats where they will triumph effortlessly as they reengineer their 2017 campaigns.

As for Kenneth, we love you very much, but for now, get a small seat, maybe a senatorial seat before its too late, otherwise you are well positioned to scoop a ticket ro political oblivion for another five cool years, out of the much needed limelight for 2017 and thereafter.

4. Kamencu and any other aspirant

Whoever gangs up with Kingwa Kamencu in the name of political marriages that have rocked this country is deemed to ear n outright condemnation and embarrassment.

How will you convince Kenyans to vote you and you will ensure they will no longer wear underwear? Someone called this the influence of bhang and a concoction of other drugs that I will not name.

Yesterday, Uhuru kenyata was named the Jubilee alliance candidate to face off with Raila Odinga in what is billed as the most temperamental political contest in the country since independence. According to me, and let me reiterate here, this is my own honest opinion, this is a done deal. You might want to say opinions never count, nor do opinion polls in this country, but truth be told, from what we saw yesterday at Kasarani, Raila will laugh all the way to the revered house on the hill come March 5, or 6. The duo, both suspects at the international criminal court had clearly nothing to tell Kenyans other than to attack Raila and his ilk. No wonder the jeers outnumbered the cheers and this says a lot.

Thats why Kenyans from Kacheliba to Kabartorjo, Kilifi to Kakamega, Othaya to Siaya are becoming increasingly corded faster than Uhuru says jubilee. The voices of most Kenyans remain, NOT YET UHURU, whether you like it or not. Enough said.