Spread the word. It looks like some big names are going to be playing there.

Today is January 27th 2008. On this day last month, Kenyans voted in large numbers, with long queues in many voting stations. Late into the night on the 27th and early morning on the 28th, the votes were counted and the country waited for an announcement of their leaders. On the 29th, the parliamentary results trickled in amidst tension, little to no information from the Electoral Commission of Kenya; many political old guards being defeated in the polls and rising anxiety as most people started to feel like something was not right. On the 30th it was clear something was that something was definitely wrong. ‘What have they done?‘. The day wears on and Kibaki is announced as the winner of the elections. It is a sad day for Kenya. People are killed in various parts of the country, houses are torched in Eldoret, on the 30th and even more people are killed on the 31st (some by the military). January 1st, an attack at a church in Eldoret. A Kenyan Jurist contemplates the election petitions.

Kenya is not the Kenya we knew anymore.

Reuters has a chronology of events from January 1st to the 19th, including the mediation attempts of President John Kufuor of Ghana, and continued violence in the country.

Continuing from the above chronology, using reports on Ushahidi and bloggers in Kenya:
Jan 20th - continued violence with houses burned in Nandi Hills, Economic boycott announced by ODM

Jan 23rd - Kofi Annan begins talks with Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki. A handshake and a press conference. Verbal attacks between the protagonists continue.

Jan 24th - Aspirant in Cherangany seeking information that was supposed to have been given to him and others 48 hrs from Dec 28 by ECK, told to ‘Go to the Headquarters’

Jan 25th - Violence in Nakuru. A haven of Peace no more. The Kenyan Army deployed there to quell the violence, a curfew from 7pm-6am imposed on the town.

Jan 26th - Update from Nakuru - more violence, fears of more militia arriving in Nakuru.

**Continued thanks to the many contributors to Ushahidi.com. We value your reports and the entries continue to give witness to what is happening to Kenya. Many thanks too to the peace efforts, humanitarian assistance, donation drives and the countless bloggers around the world.

VUMA KENYA! Initiative is the brainchild of a group of talented, resourceful and socially connected young professional Kenyans who have decided to say enough is enough.

Spearheaded by Karimi Gituma, a Kenyan medical student at Harvard Medical School, VUMA KENYA! Initiative draws together an eclectic mix of brilliant, talented and accomplished young Kenyans, all former graduates of prestigious academic institutions including but not limited to: Kenya High School, Starehe Boys Center, Nairobi School, Alliance Boys High School, St. Mary’s School Nairobi, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Northeastern University, and Michigan Tech University; all, budding leaders in their own right.

Our Goals

• To lend a voice to the displaced victims and relief workers by telling their stories in their own words.
• To create a collaborative network where relief workers, Kenyans and concerned global citizens can work together to find tangible solutions to this crisis.
• To leverage resources and funding for all disaster relief efforts, particularly those of small grassroots organizations.
• To leverage a platform and build internal capacity resiliency of grassroots organizations at the community level by giving them a similar platform to appeal for donations as larger more established disaster relief organizations.

Our Initiative

VUMA KENYA Initiative intends to raise awareness and mobilize resources in 2 ways:

• Our web-based initiative will serve as a conduit of information and resources to aid the Kenya Red Cross and other domestic grassroots (NGO) organizations.
• Organize and highlight events such as benefit concerts, prayer vigils, fundraisers and other initiatives within the extended Kenyan community, that strive to spread a message of peace, reconciliation, raise awareness or seek solutions to our country’s crisis.

To this end VUMA KENYA! Initiative is organizing a benefit concert for the Kenya Red Cross slated for Saturday February 2nd 2008 at the premier concert location, “THE ROXY”, situated in downtown Boston. Please refer to our events page for more details.

We hope that these efforts will have a ripple effect throughout the entire Kenyan community inspiring us all to actively seek and engage in finding short-term and long-term solutions to the refugee crisis and to rebuilding our country, not only at an individual level but also within our own communities and social networks.

Fellow Kenyan blogger Joseph Karoki, who has been posting a lot of images from the post-election aftermath, will be playing there as well.

Ruud Elmendorp, a well known video journalist in Kenya, has some well done videos depicting the post-election events in Kenya. For those unfamiliar with the background of what exactly happened, this first video will explain a lot:

Make sure you watch his other 3 videos on Rocketboom.

If you would like to send an incident report to Ushahidi, just enter it into an SMS message and text that to 6007. Make sure you make note of your location.

It’s a little funny that the team behind Ushahidi consists of a number of bloggers, yet we didn’t think of adding a blog to Ushahidi until about a week into it.  The good thing is that it’s now here.

We plan to use this as our main area for updating users on changes, additions and news on Ushahidi.  You’ll likely see some embedded videos from time-to-time as well.  If you have any news, images, video or information that you think would be relevant to readers, use the contact form to get in touch with us.

If you’d like to be in touch with us personally, you can visit our individual blogs at:

Kenyan Pundit

White African

Afromusing

Mentalacrobatics