AudiencScapes

In the second installment of the series on Map Kibera , Dinfin Mulupi reports on the citizen journalism project, “Voice of Kibera.” Relying on residents who file reports via SMS, the project seeks to balance mainstream media’s coverage of the settlement and report information residents care about.

By Dinfin Mulupi

As one of Africa’s better known and most studied informal settlements, Kenya’s Kibera slum is accustomed to receiving attention from both local and international media. Now, after years of having their lives described by outsiders, Kibera residents are using a new online platform to broadcast their own stories.

Founded less than a year ago, Voices of Kibera, enables Kibera residents to publish reports on issues that affect their lives. An initiative of the citizen-mapping project Map Kibera, it uses the Ushahidi crowdsourcing platform to map resident reports. Using a mobile phone or computer, residents can send real-time information via short code “3002.”

A multidimensional view of Kibera

Gerry Omondi, the editor of “Voices of Kibera,” sits in a local cybercafé for three hours every day, editing and verifying incoming messages sent by the public. He believes the reports from “Voice of Kibera” balance the negative stories that often dominate coverage of Kibera by outside media outlets.

“Kibera residents have always had the perception that, though the media highlights their plight, more often than not, the reports are exaggerated,” said Omondi. “’Voice of Kibera’ gives the public a platform to restore the positive image of the slum.”

In addition to Omondi, the citizen reporting project also has nine reporters. While only one of these reporters is a qualified journalist, they have all completed in-house training on reporting and multimedia skills. Reports on the “Voice of Kibera” website include information on scholarships, job opportunities, and incidents of violence and sports tournaments. Each report is mapped.

The reporters view their primary responsibility to be letting Kibera and the world know what is happening in the slum. The reporters are drawn from local community organizations and nongovernmental organizations working in Kibera. While they are not paid a salary, the project compensates them for their mobile airtime costs and gives them funds to use the Internet in local cybercafés.

In one of his posts, reporter Fredrick Barry explains why the project is important to him: “…it gives out the true image of Kibera, highlighting [the community's] grievances as well as their views in all areas of life; it's through “Voice of Kibera” that one gets precise, reliable and up to date happenings within Kibera without exaggeration as some media houses do. I feel great when I give out the truth regarding Kibera."

Information that serves the community

The platform is becoming a destination for sharing information from and with Kibera’s residents. Last week when Melinda Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation wanted to talk to residents, “Voice of Kibera” posted the notice. The notice solicited questions from community members that they would like posed to Gates, who was there to discuss progress on the United Nation’s “Millennium Development Goals”:

“TEDxKibera in collaboration with TEDxChange of Bill & Melinda Gates foundation will tomorrow hold a forum in Kibera over Millennium Development Goals & challenges that abound. Unnamed sources confirmed that Melinda Gates will be present to share with the locals in quest for local solutions…Pose the questions which you might have asked if you were to be in that meeting.”

The impact of “Voice of Kibera” has been felt primarily in reporting emergencies. Omondi says the platform has come in handy in areas when incidents of fire, robbery and gun violence occur. Government agencies have not always been prompt in responding to citizen’s needs in Kibera. “Voice of Kibera” is changing this.

“In the past it would take hours before fire fighters arrived at the scene, mostly because of delays in reporting incidents,” said Omondi. “’Voice of Kibera’ has made it easier to mobilize response in a crisis.”

The project faced a big test of its effectiveness as an information source during the August 2010 constitutional referendum. The “Voice of Kibera” played a key role in reporting violence and promoting peace in the settlements. Kibera was one of the 28 areas that were considered to be a potential hotspot of tension during the referendum. “Voice of Kibera” deployed a team of monitors to polling centers in the slums who then filed SMS reports about how elections and vote counting was conducted.

Limitations of the technology

The project is grappling with a major challenge: increasing its popularity and use among Kibera residents.

“Only 30 percent of Kibera residents use the platform to make reports mostly because few have access to web-enabled mobile phones,” said Omondi. “Many people do not use the web. People outside Kibera are amazed by ‘Voice of Kibera,’ but in the slum, it has yet to gain popularity.”

Efforts are being made to popularize the platform in the area and soon the team will be unveiling SMS alerts which are expected to increase its readership. In the long-term, the team would like to have a radio version of “Voice of Kibera,” owing to the popularity and accessibility of radio in the settlement.

Dinfin Mulupi is a business journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. She is currently the East Africa correspondent for an online business paper based in Cape Town, South Africa. She can be reached at ejakaitdinfin@yahoo.com.