Ushahidi began as a way to map eyewitness reports in Kenya. It has since been used around the world.
In the weeks after Kenya’s disputed 2007 election, a small group in Nairobi built a tool to collect reports by text message and plot them on a map.
“Ushahidi” is Swahili for testimony. The software of that name began in 2008, during and after the Kenyan presidential election crisis of 2007 to 2008, as a way to gather eyewitness reports of violence. Ory Okolloh co-created it, and Juliana Rotich co-founded the non-profit behind it.
How it works
Reports arrive by text message, email or web, and are plotted on a map using geolocation, so that people can see where help is needed. Because the software is open source, others could adapt it. It has since been used in Chile, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan, Tanzania and Haiti, and adapted for monitoring elections and tracking the availability of medicines.
Rotich served as executive director from 2011 to 2015. She co-founded iHub, the Nairobi technology space, and later BRCK.
What it shows
Ushahidi came from Kenya, and it travelled the world. It is a reminder that tools built to solve a hard local problem often turn out to be useful far beyond where they started, and that open-source software can carry an idea further than any single company.
