By
Julia Sestier
 |
|
George Owero, video reporter at
Kibera News Network/Map Kibera looks at the political map of Kibera and Langata
Constituencies in Kibera slum ahead of the March election
|
Reporters
in Kenya's largest slum have devised an interesting method of reporting on the
upcoming election.
Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi
and one of the largest and most famous slums in Africa.
Journalists from around the world visit
Kibera to report on urban poverty. Hundreds of non-governmental organisations
implement programmes on HIV/AIDS, education, sanitation, and other issues
affecting the lives of Kibera dwellers.
Kibera is also famous for being one the
places most affected by post-election violence in 2007 and 2008, which left
1,300 people dead and forced more than 600,000 from their homes.
But for close to 200,000 people, Kibera
is home. Residents are growing weary of the stigma associated with living in a
slum and are increasingly bitter about the negative way in which their
neighbourhood is being portrayed.
Over the last few years, several media
outlets have emerged in Kibera to address the gap in reporting and to give a
voice to the residents.
With only a few days to go until the
March 4 presidential elections, they are determined to offer another kind of
reporting and to contribute to a smooth electoral process.
Putting Kibera on the Map
Map Kibera runs two media projects: the Kibera
News Network (KNN) YouTube channel, and Voice of Kibera,
an online citizen journalism project. “The mainstream media come to Kibera with
predefined angles, which leads to misreporting and exaggerations.” explains Map
Kibera’s creator, Kepha Ngito, adding “the aim of these projects is to give the
residents of Kibera the self-esteem to speak for themselves, rather than being
spoken about.”
In addition to being based on
crowdsourcing, the projects are unique in that they publish the information
collected on a digital map of the slum.
Before Kepha Ngito created Map Kibera
two and a half years ago, the informal settlement did not appear on the map of
Nairobi. “Sixty percent of Nairobi residents live in twenty one slum areas,” he
explains, “but most of the slums are not mapped and not recognised formally.
For many years, Kibera was a forest on the Nairobi map!”
In addition to giving Kibera a formal
geographical existence, the map locates service providers, such as police
stations, health centres, schools or water and sanitation facilities. Mapping
has become a way to engage the community on these issues, thereby contributing
to Kibera residents feeling more like entitled citizens.
Online crowdsourced election monitoring
platform
Map Kibera’s newest map, a political
map, constitutes the basis for an ambitious online election-monitoring
platform, which was launched last week.
The digital map shows the location of
the forty-four polling stations in Kibera and Langata, as well as the number of
registered voters. It is used to aggregate and map the reports received by SMS
and e-mail or via the KNN YouTube Channel. The platform is entirely open
source, and will be updated in real time on the day of the election.
The aim is not only to inform residents
but also to contribute to a smooth and peaceful election in Kibera. As the map
also locates the nearest police stations and health facilities, it will allow Map
Kibera to pass on relevant reports to the nearest service providers for
intervention.
“In the last election the mainstream
media was reporting everything that went wrong in Kibera,” says Steve Oduor, a
twenty-nine-year-old video reporter at Map Kibera.
“This time, we are going to challenge
them.”
Preaching Peace
Other media outlets have focused on preventing
violence. “We have voter’s education and peace programmes during the
election period,” explains Thomas Bwire, news editor at Pamoja
FM, Kibera’s community radio station. “Peace messages run on air
regularly, we cover news in a way that promotes peace and we invite local
personalities to come and preach peace.”
The “Pass the Mic” afternoon show is
aimed at the youth of Kibera. Held in Shany, the “language of the ghetto,” a
mix of Kiswahili and English words, it is the radio’s most popular show. “Young
people call and talk about their issues – like unemployment, the lack of
resources and insecurity – and they request a reggae song,” said Thomas. The
platform provides a unique opportunity to engage the youth, who are the most at
risk of getting involved in violence.
The Kibera Journal’s motto is “You deserve to know.”
“We inform the Kibera residents about issues that affect them.” explains
Leonard Okwako, editor of the community paper. A couple of weeks ago, the Kibera
Journal published a special edition on peace. Another special edition focused
on the elections will be published this week to encourage people to vote,
explain the different steps of the electoral process and discourage Kibera
residents from engaging in violence.
Responsible Reporting
The slum reporters are not particularly
concerned about their own security at this stage; in fact they feel that they
will be safer than the mainstream media. “We interact with this community
everyday, this is where we come from. People trust us. Security will not
be a problem for our reporters,” said Pamoja FM’s Thomas Bwire.
But proximity to the community also
comes with a higher sense of responsibility for the peaceful enfolding of the
elections. “We will have to be careful about the language we use, and how we
report incidents,” said Thomas. “If you report that tribe A is fighting tribe B
it is very sensitive. People will say “they are fighting over there” and will
start fighting over here. We will have to judge. Maybe report with a delay.”
Asked how he would describe Kibera,
George Owero, video reporter at Map Kibera said “I think it’s the best place to
live, even if it is hard to grow up here.” Thomas from Pamoja FM added,
“We are living together in peace. We should not let the politicians separate
us.”
Source: Doha Centre for Media Freedom
No comments:
Post a Comment