Matatu 49 (2017) 467–486 brill.com/mata Citizen Journalism and Conflict Transformation The Ushahidi’s Response to Kenya’s 2008 Post-Election Violence Toyin Ajao University of Pretoria, Hatfield, South Africa [email protected] Cori Wielenga University of Pretoria, Hatfield, South Africa [email protected]; [email protected] Abstract The ubiquitous Internet platform in Africa has given rise to a new set of non-state actors responding to protracted conflicts through the use of new media technology. As a departure from a state-centric approach to addressing conflict in Africa, this interdis- ciplinary study explores the contribution of the public in responding to armed conflicts through citizen journalism. To unearth non-violent African digital innovations, this research explored the Ushahidi platform, which emerged as a response to Kenya’s 2008 post-election violence. Using a qualitative method, data was gathered through unstruc- tured in-depth interviews. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. The data showed the transformative role the Ushahidi platform played during Kenya’s electoral violence through crisis-mapping, the early warning multi-agent consortium, a consti- tutional referendum, and election monitoring. Evidence also emerged regarding the pioneer work of Ushahidi in other non-violent technological involvements in address- ing crisis in Kenya. Keywords peace process – citizen journalism – new media – Kenya – post-election violence – Ushahidi – people’s participation – conflict transformation © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/18757421-04902012Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 06:44:55PM via free access 468 ajao and wielenga Introduction The rapid growth of the Internet in Africa has given rise to a new set of non- state actors responding to protracted conflicts with the use of new media tech- nology. As a departure from a state-centric approach to addressing conflict in Africa, this article explores the contribution of the public in responding to armed conflicts through citizen journalism. This is in the light of the failure of the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach of many international peacebuilding inter- ventions.1 These interventions tend to only scratch the surface of the conflict dynamic, in part due to their highly bureaucratic, technocratic, and rushed approaches.2 The argument of extant literature focusing on people-centred approaches to peace processes has uncovered one significant failure of most interventions: namely, that people are often excluded from participating in their own affairs.3 This critical component for lasting peace is hardly given due attention. There are various ways in which people’s participations in their own affairs can enhance sustainable peace. Many scholars, such as John Lederach, Jo- han Galtung, and Picciotto, Olonisakin and Clarke,4 have emphasized the im- portance of people-centred approaches to conflict transformation for the achievement of sustainable peace. With the advent of the new media, there are non-violent people- and youth-led initiatives that respond to violent con- flict in various ways. One of these is that of citizen journalism platforms where amateur reporters have moved from merely reporting on crisis and disas- ter to taking proactive steps in generating solutions.5 However, new media 1 Joseph G. Bock, The Technology of Nonviolence: Social Media and Violence Prevention (Cam- bridge ma & London: mit Press, 2012). 2 Roger Mac Ginty & Oliver P. Richmond, “The Local Turn in Peace Building: A Critical Agenda for Peace,” Third World Quarterly 32.5 (2013): 763–783. 3 Timothy Donais, Peacebuilding and Local Ownership: Post-Conflict Consensus-Building (Abingdon: Routledge, 2012). 4 John Paul Lederach, The Little Book of Conflict Transformation (Intercourse pa: Good Books, 2003); Johan Galtung, Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civiliza- tion (Thousand Oaks ca & London: Sage, 1996); Johan Galtung, “Introduction: peace by peace- ful conflict transformation—the transcend approach,” in Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies, ed. Charles Webel & Johan Galtung (London & New York: Routledge, 2007): 14–32; and Robert Picciotto, Funmi Olonisakin & Michael Clarke, Global Development and Human Security (New Brunswick nj: Transaction, 2010). 5 Einar Thorsen & Stuart Allan, “Introduction” to Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives, ed. Einar Thorsen & Stuart Allan (New York: Peter Lang, 2014), vol. 2: 1–12. DownloadedMatatu from 49 Brill.com09/30/2021 (2017) 467–486 06:44:55PM via free access citizen journalism and conflict transformation 469 technologies are two-sided, in that they can also be used to instigate or escalate violence.6 It is against this backdrop that this article explores the phenomenon of the new media in peace processes by examining the contribution of citizen journalism to conflict transformation. It will do this by engaging with the case of Kenya’s ‘Ushahidi’, an online platform that engaged in crowdsourcing for crisis-mapping at the height of the 2008 post-election violence (pev). This article draws on in-depth interviews undertaken by the first author in Kenya in 2016 and 2017. The 28 respondents include the four founders of Ushahidi (all of whom had their own blogs prior to starting Ushahidi), six other prominent Kenyan bloggers, and five people trained in mainstream or traditional journalism (two of whom are still in the industry and three who have left). The remainder of those interviewed are members of civil-society organizations, government officials, and political activists, all of whom were involved in one way or another during the 2008 pev. The Emergence of Ushahidi in the Context of Kenya’s 2008 pev In 2008, the Kenyan community suffered fatal and gruesome post-independent political violence owing to election irregularities, resulting in over a thousand deaths and over 500,000 displaced people. The 2008 pev in Kenya brought to the surface deep ethnic divisions among the public, rooted in socio-economic and political problems.7 Out of the concern of a group of Kenyan citizens to ‘do something’ emerged the citizen journalism platform, Ushahidi (a Kiswahili word for ‘testimony’), who sought to report on the extent of the violence when information became truncated due to the ban imposed on transmissions by Kenya’s broadcasting houses by the Ministry of Internal Security.8 6 Gerd Junne, The Role of Media in Conflict Transformation (2013), http://www.irenees.net/ bdf_fiche-analyse-1002_en.html (accessed 21 October 2014); Sean Aday, Henry Farrell, Marc Lynch, John Sides, John Kelly & Ethan Zuckerman, BlogsandBullets:NewMediainContentious Politics (Washington dc: United States Institute of Peace Studies, 2010); Bruce Mutsvairo & Simon Columbus, “Emerging Patterns and Trends in Citizen Journalism in Africa: The Case of Zimbabwe,” Central European Journal of Communication 5.1 (2012): 121–136; and Ethan Zuckerman, “Citizen Media and the Kenyan Electoral Crisis,” in Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives, ed. Einar Thorsen & Stuart Allan (New York: Peter Lang, 2009), vol. 1: 187–196. 7 Sheila Mwiandi, Moving Beyond Relief: The Challenges of Settling Kenya’s Internally Displaced (usipeace Briefing; New York: usip–United States Institute of Peace, 2008). 8 Maarit Makinen & Mary Wangu Kuira, “Social Media and Post-Election Crisis in Kenya,” Information and Communication Technology—Africa 13 (2008): 1–15. Matatu 49 (2017) 467–486 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 06:44:55PM via free access 470 ajao and wielenga The mass-media houses were alleged to have accelerated the violence by spreading “alarmist information,” which pitched the nation further into deep pandemonium. As a result of this development, four bloggers teamed up to create the Ushahidi platform to report, document, and provide information to the wider populace and the international community on the extent of the upheavals.9 This documentation resulted in a ‘mashup’ of information leading to a graphic representation of the crisis on Google Maps for the purposes of documentation, justice, and conciliation. Ushahidi has since then forged ahead to participate in the 2010 Constitutional Referendum and 2013 Election Monitory through its Uchaguzi project. It is also participating in a multi-agent consortium on early-warning systems. The Ushahidi, in collaboration with other citizen journalists, thus created a powerful active reporting mechanism to crowdsource information on the extent and magnitude of the violence among the Kenyan populace.10 Addi- tionally, Ushahidi broke new ground in partnering with international and local ngos as well as delivering services through its open-source software to map cri- sis and disasters in various countries such as Chile, South Africa, the usa, Haiti, India, the Philippines, and Pakistan.11 Conflict Transformation and Constructive Change Processes ‘Conflict transformation’ refers to a holistic peace process that seeks to reduce structural and cultural violence by addressing its root causes through the bot- tom-up durable construction of long-term advocacy and strategic planning.12 Conflict transformation, according to Lederach, sees conflict as offering “life- giving opportunities” to create “constructive change processes that reduce vio- 9 Simon Jeffery, “Ushahidi: Crowdmapping collective that exposed Kenyan election killings,” The Guardian (7 April 2011), https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2011/apr/07/ ushahidi-crowdmap-kenya-violence-hague (accessed 20 October 2014). 10 Joshua Goldstein