It's been almost 2 years since I returned to Kenya. Business is booming. It’s great to feel like I’m “home” again.
But something new has happened recently...
Have you heard about the Kenyan protests? They even made the news in the US when protesters set parliament on fire.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning…
At first, the protests seemed like a normal Kenyan protest: one political party pays jobless youth to make some noise, contrived protests that may or may not reflect the will of Kenya citizens.
But this was different—completely different. The protesters were of all classes and all races. The protests were unusually peaceful, with little looting. “Leader-less, Tribe-less, Fear-less” is an oft-repeated phrase, a huge change from the 2007 tribal, post-election violence. Similar protests have started across Africa, with murmurs that Kenya has sparked another Arab Spring.
To support the protests we are hosting a Hackathon and Prize competition to celebrate the best solutions to government accountability. It’s called HakiHack.
If you can help us by donating, Kenyans present and future would be grateful.
If Protests v1.0 is in the streets what would Protests v2.0 look like?
That’s what we are building at HakiHack with Kenyan and international friends in the startup space.
Protests 1.0: stick and stones.
Protests 2.0: tweets and phones.
Protests 2.0 can help amplify Protests 1.0 and bring long-term accountability to the spike of activity in the streets.
Already, Kenyans have built great solutions for Government Accountability: tracking budgets, tracking politicians’ campaign promises, investigative journalism, and GPT chatbots to provide citizens with an intuitive interface for understanding legislation and corruption cases.
How do we encourage more of that?
HakiHack (“haki” = rights in Swahili) will provide prizes for previous work and bounties for new work. 5 existing solutions will receive a prize of $400 each. Beyond just money, this recognition will be proof-points to catalyze more funding from other sources.
Then, during the live hackathon on the weekend of the 17th of August, techies and public policy advocates will form teams to create homegrown solutions for accountability.
This is going to be fun!
There can be a tendency to feel apathetic. Can any one person or even group of people do anything to create change?
Here’s an amazing example for you: in the early 1900s New York City was very corrupt. Not just “scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” No, grand theft kind of corruption where the city would pay for 10,000 bags of cement, receive 5,000 and the supplier and government official would split the difference.
Well, a group of people got together and decided that protesting alone wasn’t enough. They created the now-famous report How Manhattan is Governed published under the name “The Bureau of City Betterment.” The report detailed how the price of building 1 mile of road was much more expensive in one jurisdiction than in another. How road work had not been done appropriately with photos of unfixed potholes.
This caused an uproar.
Elected officials were implicated in the report. One man testified that he had been bribed by a city official to stay silent.
People were ready for change!
But it didn’t come. At least not right away.
The same politicians were re-elected. But Bureau of City Betterment chapters sprang up across the country with reports on the corruption in cities throughout the USA. Within a decade most direct stealing from taxpayers was weeded out. The people won.
The world doesn’t just magically get better. Places with corruption can be improved when people set their minds and pens to it.
We live in a new era with new opportunities; pens turn to code. What possibilities lie ahead? An idea worth playing with, wouldn’t you agree?
The time is now. Kenya has reached a very interesting milestone for civic engagement: 83% literacy.
Something special seems to happen around there.
The US voters had ~80% literacy in 1776 (the year of independence)
South Africa reached ~80% in 1994 (the end of apartheid).
Tunisia reached ~80% in 2012 (when Tunisia became the spark that ignited Arab Spring).
To learn more about the protests you can read my summary here. Riveting summary, if I do say so myself.
And please consider donating. All donations will go to the HakiHack hackathon.
Of course, we are not just sitting on our butts waiting for donations. We are having a fundraising party on August 9. We will start with a dinner party, then live music, spoken word, a silent auction for protest art, and a graffiti artist will upgrade a wall, followed by DJ sets until late. With drinks for sale as well. (If you are in Nairobi please come and join us.)
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Exciting new approach to Government Accountability in Kenya
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Hi All,
It's been almost 2 years since I returned to Kenya. Business is booming. It’s great to feel like I’m “home” again.
But something new has happened recently...
Have you heard about the Kenyan protests? They even made the news in the US when protesters set parliament on fire.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning…
At first, the protests seemed like a normal Kenyan protest: one political party pays jobless youth to make some noise, contrived protests that may or may not reflect the will of Kenya citizens.
But this was different—completely different. The protesters were of all classes and all races. The protests were unusually peaceful, with little looting. “Leader-less, Tribe-less, Fear-less” is an oft-repeated phrase, a huge change from the 2007 tribal, post-election violence. Similar protests have started across Africa, with murmurs that Kenya has sparked another Arab Spring.
To support the protests we are hosting a Hackathon and Prize competition to celebrate the best solutions to government accountability. It’s called HakiHack.
If you can help us by donating, Kenyans present and future would be grateful.
Donate Here
More context
If Protests v1.0 is in the streets what would Protests v2.0 look like?
That’s what we are building at HakiHack with Kenyan and international friends in the startup space.
Protests 2.0 can help amplify Protests 1.0 and bring long-term accountability to the spike of activity in the streets.
Already, Kenyans have built great solutions for Government Accountability: tracking budgets, tracking politicians’ campaign promises, investigative journalism, and GPT chatbots to provide citizens with an intuitive interface for understanding legislation and corruption cases.
How do we encourage more of that?
HakiHack (“haki” = rights in Swahili) will provide prizes for previous work and bounties for new work. 5 existing solutions will receive a prize of $400 each. Beyond just money, this recognition will be proof-points to catalyze more funding from other sources.
Then, during the live hackathon on the weekend of the 17th of August, techies and public policy advocates will form teams to create homegrown solutions for accountability.
This is going to be fun!
There can be a tendency to feel apathetic. Can any one person or even group of people do anything to create change?
Here’s an amazing example for you: in the early 1900s New York City was very corrupt. Not just “scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” No, grand theft kind of corruption where the city would pay for 10,000 bags of cement, receive 5,000 and the supplier and government official would split the difference.
Well, a group of people got together and decided that protesting alone wasn’t enough. They created the now-famous report How Manhattan is Governed published under the name “The Bureau of City Betterment.” The report detailed how the price of building 1 mile of road was much more expensive in one jurisdiction than in another. How road work had not been done appropriately with photos of unfixed potholes.
This caused an uproar.
Elected officials were implicated in the report. One man testified that he had been bribed by a city official to stay silent.
People were ready for change!
But it didn’t come. At least not right away.
The same politicians were re-elected. But Bureau of City Betterment chapters sprang up across the country with reports on the corruption in cities throughout the USA. Within a decade most direct stealing from taxpayers was weeded out. The people won.
The world doesn’t just magically get better. Places with corruption can be improved when people set their minds and pens to it.
We live in a new era with new opportunities; pens turn to code. What possibilities lie ahead? An idea worth playing with, wouldn’t you agree?
The time is now. Kenya has reached a very interesting milestone for civic engagement: 83% literacy.
Something special seems to happen around there.
The US voters had ~80% literacy in 1776 (the year of independence)
South Africa reached ~80% in 1994 (the end of apartheid).
Tunisia reached ~80% in 2012 (when Tunisia became the spark that ignited Arab Spring).
To learn more about the protests you can read my summary here. Riveting summary, if I do say so myself.
And please consider donating. All donations will go to the HakiHack hackathon.
Target: $7,752 (1m Kenyan Shillings)
Already committed: $2,300 (270,000 Kenyan Shillings)
Donate
Of course, we are not just sitting on our butts waiting for donations. We are having a fundraising party on August 9. We will start with a dinner party, then live music, spoken word, a silent auction for protest art, and a graffiti artist will upgrade a wall, followed by DJ sets until late. With drinks for sale as well. (If you are in Nairobi please come and join us.)