The founders of Kuhonga, proudly refer to it as their corporate baby, referring to the day they incorporated their fledging organization and started to working on “A crazy idea that just might work,” according to Nathan Wangusi a Kenyan expat and CEO of Kuhonga. “When I returned to Kenya for the first time in several years in I had to pay two bribes just to get out of the airport. I knew then and there that I needed to do something about petty corruption.”
Mr. Wangusi has since developed Kuhonga on a web-based platform Ushahidi that allows for real time reporting and mapping of corruption incidents via a number of channels, including Twitter, Facebook, email, mobile app and SMS. “When I looked at my Facebook feed I constantly saw people talking about corruption. I saw the potential for crowdsourcing and social media to make a difference.”
Although Kuhonga hasn’t yet released a final version of its platform, a test version is accepting reports. Users can visit www.kuhonga.com to submit a report. Reports can also be submitted via twitter by simply using the hashtag #kuhonga on any tweet. Ushahidi has also recently released a mobile app that can be downloaded either on the Android Market or Apple Store. Kuhonga’s deployment can be uploaded to this app.
Kuhonga has also partnered with the Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) an existing nonprofit that works to improve governance and support anti-corruption efforts. “Kuhonga works by aggregating all of the ongoing conversations about social media and turning them into the type of data that a non-profit like us can actually use” said Charles Wanguhu a human rights practitioner at AfriCOG.
Kuhonga will also be partnering with several news outlets including such as Voice of America to boost its profile and to take advantage of news content that identifies incidents of corruptions.
“Once we perfect our technology platform we’re going to start working extra hard to get the word out so we can raise awareness of the platform and secure additional funding” said Rahma Mkuu one of the co-founders of Kuhonga and a master’s student in the public health program at Columbia University in New York. Ms. Mkuu, who is also a Kenyan expat, was inspired to help Kuhonga after she encountered corruption while attempting to provide toothbrushes to Kenyan children as part of an earlier non-profit effort.
Mr. Wangusi has been invited to attend and speak at the 15th Annual International Anti-Corruption Conference in Brazil this November. He will be speaking about the role of technology in tackling corruption.
Contact: Lewis Kirvan; programs@kuhonga.com
