10
Apr
It is almost a week since the March 4th national general elections conducted by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the presidential results are yet to be released. There is an impatient and restless atmosphere in the country. On this fateful day, it is about three in the afternoon and people are slowly trickling into the church hall that doubles up as a community hall in Mathare’s Stage 10 area.
The weather is chilly and virtually every patch of ground damp from the erratic rainfall this time of the year. Some women are already seated griping tight their shawls and ‘lesos’ and clenching the sleeves of the hoodies they are wearing spotting a beanie-hats here and there. In a short while there is quorum to start this meeting that has been convened by Emily Kwamboka, a young community leader and social justice activist. Emily has worked with Bunge La Mwananchi, a citizens’ open forum that seeks to encourage lay-public participation in the governance and development agenda in Kenya. Emily is also a current fellow with the current Fahamu Pan-African Fellowship. Moments later, Emily introduces a leather jacketed, denim in canvas shoes Sam to come and address the people.
“Most of mobile phone providers block 300,000 hate short message texts (SMSs) per day to prevent events similar to what happened in 2007,” this is as reported by the Daily Nation on 21st March, quoting Information and Communications Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo. This newspaper report comes days after the Mathare Stage 10 meeting with Sam of Sisi Ni Amani Kenya (SNAK) initiative, which can loosely be translated from Swahili to mean ‘We are Peace Kenya’.
SNAK is a non-partisan community based movement that employs cellular phones for their peace campaigns and community mobilizations. This is done largely by sending mass text messages (SMSs), otherwise known as ‘arafa fupi’, to various sections of communities in the city and elsewhere. SNAK’s inception can be dated around the 2007 post electoral period of violence where as Sam states, “The phone was extensively used to spread hate during this time…” “We’, niaje Fulani come place Fulani tu-meet watu Fulani tuwa-attack” , Sam continues to talk of how using text messages groups would mobilize and plan ethnic based attacks back in 2007.
“Hate mongers would approach and feed individuals and their agenda would in turn be taken to the cell phones. SNAK’s agenda was to counter the hate messages, to use the very instrument that had been employed for conflict, reclaim that platform and use it for good”. SNAK having realized the power and potential of the cellular phone have hence adopted the handset as their primary weapon for peace and community mobilization and civil awareness campaigns. Mobile devices are very easily accessible across the country and more so in the city. SNAK’s community impact comes from an appreciation of this fact in their operations.
How does the text messaging work?
SNAK first identifies reliable influential individuals in the community, in this case Emily Kwamboka, who would be tasked with collecting personal data of members of the community, Name, Sex and Location. The community leader is perceived as non-threatening in such an exercise and so data is easily proffered. This is as opposed to having ‘strangers’ from SNAK collect the data. The data is then fed to the SNAK data base. In the event of any flare up of some kind, SNAK then sends a standard text message in mass to individuals in their data base in the relevant community area. Sam continues to give an example. “As sad as it is to admit it, the rate of fire outbreaks in the Mathare area has grown seriously high… In such cases, word is sent to SNAK by someone in the community, SNAK in turn verifies the incident and its location through the liaisons it has with the community leaders and consequently disseminates the information in mass text messages to people in the concerned area.”
Do text messages really work?
Sam answering a question raised by someone in the audience goes on to enumerate the successes they have experience while on this platform. He narrates of a story where a certain community leader was found dead in Nairobi’s Korogocho area. This incident was read with mischief by a section of the Korogocho community and was fuelling hostilities. At this point SNAK sent out a text that read “We the members of the Korogocho community will keep peace especially now as we mourn the demise of our brother Nyash.” The interesting turn of events saw to it that armed youth put away their weapons and match to the closest police station where they reported their concerns over growing insecurity in the community.
SNAK has used the text messages not just to warn of calamities but also to mobilize the community towards various development initiatives like peace beauty pageants, soccer tournaments and civic education/awareness. Sam goes on to enumerate other areas they have been involved in like Baba Dogo, Kariobangi, Mathare, Kamukunji, Kiambaa, Eldoret, Narok, Burnt Forest, Nakuru, Transmara and so on.
They have partnered with the Nairobi Fire Brigade, The Kenya Police, The National Cohesion and Integration Commission and corporations like Safaricom, a telecommunication company that freely gave SNAK 5 million text messages to further their work.
@edrwigi