Kenyan Initiative for Nigeria’s Election

Kenyan Initiative for Nigeria’s Election
Qasim Akinreti, Lagos

The Kenyan election monitoring strategy –“Ushahidi platform” popularly referred to as “testimonies” is to be deployed for Nigerians to monitor the April polls.

Ushahidi is a tool for people who witness acts of violence in Kenya in post-election times. This tool enables people to report the incident seen, and send it to a dedicated platform. It appears on a map-based view for others to see and for local Kenyan NGO’s to get information and verify each incident.

Ngozi Iwere , Executive Director, the Community Life Project , a non governmental organisation in Nigeria said this initiative ,coming under the auspices of Reclaim Naija  Project is  to be formally launched in Lagos on Thursday  by Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka.

Addressing a news conference in Lagos, Iwere said that the uniqueness of the platform was its ability to mobilize people in the urban and rural areas  to channel their concerns and make their voices heard on  the democratic process in the country.

How it works

Under this initiative, dedicated toll free cell phone numbers would be announced to the people ahead of the forthcoming elections.

People would be encouraged to call these numbers for any electoral malpractices and other developments in the polling booths to the officials of the Community Life Project who would in turn send these across to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC  and other appropriate agencies for prompt action.

According to her, the beauty of this initiative is that people can call the free toll lines, send text messages in local languages and interact with designated agencies on their complaints.

Similarly, these observations can be channeled to a website –www.reclaimniaja.net. This website is linked to Facebook and Twitter social media networks.

The originator of the Ushahidi platform, in Kenya will be in Nigeria during the launch to share her experience.

Ekata