With less than 24 hours left for the US to go to elections, the talk about rigging and fraud refuses to die down. Ushahidi, a non-profit company based in Kenya has launched a website to report irregularities on the polling day.
The creators of the website with an aim to promote transparency will use a tool they invented in late 2007 and early 2008 when Kenya was in turmoil. The phase that was marked by bloodshed as Mwai Kibaki was declared winners of an allegedly controversial elections. Both sides were reportedly charged with fraud and corruption.
At least a thousand people were killed as violence erupted between different ethnic groups in the country. The media found it hard to keep track, as many murders took place in remote areas. It was at this time that some Kenyans developed Ushahidi, a crowd-sourcing software that allowed people to report such criminal cases and track them on a map.
The technology that has been used for activities such as earthquakes response this year will help monitor the US elections. The company has put up a special website, where voters will be enabled to report any irregularities they are likely to face at polling booths.
Nat Matting, chief operations officer, was quoted by Deutsche Welle as saying, “It allows regular citizens to raise their voice. It puts a lot more eyes out there. And importantly, it creates a feeling of transparency and engagement”.
Ushahidi, which translates to testimony in Kiswahili, is now a multinational software enterprise headquartered in Nairobi with around 30 employees working in eight countries.