When Kenya erupted in murderous rioting after elections in December, I was watching it through a Web browser.
By most accounts, the incumbent president, one Mwai Kibaki, had stolen the election. Results at the constituency level indicated a resounding win for the opposition, but when the chair of the electoral commission announced the returns, looking haggard and — he later admitted — feeling pressured, the tally had mysteriously shifted in favour of the government.
The country, which had seemed poised for real progress, suddenly seemed to disintegrate into the worst of African caricatures.
The last time Kenya faced the aftermath of an election, I was sitting on a bus, crossing the border into the country from neighbouring Tanzania.
A screenshot of Ushahidi.com, a Web- and SMS-driven service for reporting acts of violence in the crisis
It was 2003, and the country was in a state of jubilation. Its first genuinely free and fair election had just taken place, and the ruling party had, rather fantastically, given way to the election's victors.
For the first time in the living memory of a younger generation, the country had a new leader.
WHERE TO HELP ONLINE:
- Kenya Red Cross The Kenya Red Cross is doing front-line relief work in Kenya, and accepts donations of all sizes on its website, thanks to Google Checkout software.
- Ushahidi.com Put together by a coalition of Kenyan bloggers, Ushahidi (Kiswahili for "witness") is a Web- and SMS-driven service for reporting acts of violence in the crisis, and it maintains a list of ways to help online. Their blog also tracks fundraising events being held around the world by the Kenyan diaspora.
- Canada Helps Closer to home, Canada Helps is a database of every charity that's registered with the Canadian government, and it lets readers donate directly through the website. If you want to do more research on a charity before giving — always advisable — the site will give you the contact information you need.
As we ground through a border checkpoint a few days into the new year, a man walking alongside the bus saw me leaning out the window. He looked up and yelled, "Who is the president of Kenya?"
"Mwai Kibaki!" I yelled back. There were yells of assent from the crowd. The man grinned and flashed me the V-for-victory hand sign that the opposition had adopted in those days.
I've been returning to that image in my mind lately, as I press my nose against the glass of my computer screen. The Internet is no substitute for being there, as I once was as a thoroughly disoriented young intern. Yet it still provides perspectives that nobody had access to until recently. In this instance, a network of Kenyan bloggers and commentators have been filling the void with updates, pleas, and some very graphic imagery.
Yet the more I looked, the more futile the exercise seemed. What good is this vast global network of instant communications? It's all well and good to join a Facebook group protesting the genocide in Darfur, or the violence in Kenya. But does giving Westerners the ability to see a foreign conflict unfold in intimate detail increase their ability to effect change?
"It's definitely created a more educated world than we've ever had before," said Nikki Whaites, who directs the international program at Journalists for Human Rights, a Toronto-based organization.
But, she added, "There doesn't seem to be a practical way to follow up with that."
Kenya is a relatively wired place, though the scope of its connectedness is still limited. The country has a growing middle class that, at least in the cities, makes good use of the cybercafés that dot the landscape. Office connections and satellite hookups are also common. But home access is still relatively rare, and it's inconceivable for the many Kenyans who live without power in slums and underdeveloped rural areas.
Rebecca Wanjiku, a Nairobi-based journalist and consultant who keeps tabs on the Kenyan blogosphere for Global Voices Online, an international blog-monitoring service, says that the Internet has been a mixed blessing in a time of crisis.
For those able to read them, she told me, blogs filled an acute void for those who didn't feel they were getting reliable information from the national media, a blend of state-run and corporate outlets. Blogs became especially important after the embattled government slapped a ban on live broadcasting, which shut down not only the country's newscasts but also its vibrant talk-radio scene.
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