A Kenyan crowdsourcing platform used to monitor violence during the country’s 2007 election will be deployed on voting day in the US to allow citizens to report cases of “voter intimidation, misdirection, or any other attempts to keep someone from voting”.



Voters witnessing any such problems will be invited to report the violations via text message, Twitter or email to Ushahidi (Swahili for “testimony”), which will create a database of incidents.

“This is an exciting development because we are more used to seeing tech ideas flowing from the west to Africa,” said Bitange Ndemo, an associate professor at the University of Nairobi Business School.

“Africa has the youngest population in the world and most disruptive developments or apps that can be scaled up come from young people, so it is good to see African developers taking their place on the global scene.”

During the election campaign the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has called the American electoral system “rigged” and refused to say whether he would accept the outcome if he loses. Some Trump supporters have threatened to take up arms if Trump is deemed to have lost unfairly, and Ushahidi will map any incidents of violence that occur.

Ushahidi gained prominence in December 2007 when a disputed presidential election in Kenya was followed by weeks of unrest in which more than 1,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were forced from their homes.

Ushahidi collected and recorded eyewitness reports of violence using text messages and Google Maps, and the technology has since been used to monitor elections in other countries.

“Elections in general are close to Ushahidi because of our history,” Daudi Were, the executive director, told the news website Quartz. “Our motto is ‘raise your voice’. Your voice is important. If you see something, positive or negative, then you can share that with us.”

Another company director, Nat Manning, wrote in a blogpost that the effort would not replace trained monitors from state legislatures and the Republican and Democratic campaigns and independent third-party monitors.

He said the idea was prompted by the “unprecedented” conversation leading up to the election about issues with the voting process, and fears of violence on election day.

“While there is no evidence of voter fraud in America, there are instances of voter suppression and voting issues on election day. As citizens, let’s raise our voices and help to report any issues on election day as well as celebrate all those who run a tight ship and bring trust to the underpinning of our democratic systems,” Manning said.

Ushahidi’s open-source software has been widely used around the world, including to document sexual harassment in Egypt, provide a record of attacks on civilians in Syria and to map areas in need of aid after the Haiti earthquake in 2012.