Kenyans turned out in record numbers for their most recent elections, described by one Kenyan thus: "this time we have had a fair election with the highest number of voters turning out to vote." The amazing turnout was created by a network of activists who coordinated with cellphones and SMS, smartmobbing the polls.
1. Planning – Political strategists came up with huge databases of their supporters with cell phone numbers and let the dynamics of networking at grassroots level take effect. In other words, because of this instrument, people who had not met before could contact each other and assist wherever they could. The youth manning the polling stations could call for support incase of any hitches.
2. Campaigning – The use of sms (short messaging service) was intense and balanced for the leading presidential candidates. Kenya has more than one million mobile phones users outstripping by far fixed lines subscribers and a message to one cell phone number can reach at least 4 people.
3. Results Diseminination – As soon as votes are counted even in the remotest areas, results can easily be accessed immediately as opposed to previous elections where people had to wait for ballot boxes to be transported to key counting points and it is believed rigging used to happen during the trasportation.
(Thanks, Howard!)
