MZALENDOKeeping an eye on the Kenyan Parliament

www.mzalendo.comwww.facebook.com/mzalendowatch

@mzalendowatch

Presentation by Jessica Musila, Africa Project Lead, mySociety

The Mzalendo Story

The co-founders:• Ory Okolloh, Lawyer, Google Policy Officer for

Africa, @kenyanpundit

• Conrad Akunga, IT specialist, Entrepreneur, @roomthinker

Kenya 2002 - 2003

The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men

Plato

Public Perception of PoliticiansBigPowerfulDecisiveAll knowingOmnipotent

Politicians Service Delivery

• Poor• In accessible to their constituents• MP talk about ‘being disturbed’• Debate on the abilities of the MPs• Angst!

Citizens Self-Perception Small Disinterested Eat, sleep and

work No opinion Beast of burden Used and

abused

The voter - YOU!

Epiphany

• MP information is not a privilege.• Constituents have a right to know• Need for accountability• Quality of leadership arguments takes place

daily

Old Website Content MPs profiles Aspirant information Administrative info (Constituencies & Polling

Stations) Political parties Leaked reports (audit reports, standing orders) Blog

Challenges

• Access to information• What information ( Bills, motions, hansard,

attendance records)• Security (physical & online)• No funding or other requisite resources• Sacrificing personal time• Entrenched culture - Apathy towards politics

and government

Omidyar Network & mySociety• Mzalendo is the only free Parliamentary

Monitoring Site in Sub-Saharan Africa;• In 2011, Omidyar Network identified Mzalendo

as needing support;• MySociety, UK - identified as an organisation with

the requisite technical expertise and experience to help make Mzalendo self-sustaining;

• Build a prototype easily adoptable to other African contexts.

Changes in Kenya

• New constitution;• Power rests with the people;• Access to information;• Public participation in governance expected;• Kenya first country African country to go open

data;• General Election in 2012/2013• Youth Bulk

New Features• MP scorecards – accessibility, CDF spending, and

Hansard appearances• Searchable Hansard • CDF information• How our government works e.g. Who will you vote

for? (president, senator, governor, MP, women representative & county representatives)

• Open data information (census, registered voters, education and health data)

• More Partners (info providers, multipliers)

Interactivity

• Mobile friendly• To comment – login via facebook or twitter or

register on the site• Users can - comment on all aspects of the site• Users can correct/add information• Users give feedback about the site• Facebook fanpage - mzalendowatch• @mzalendowatch

Future developments

• SMS interface;• Write to them;• Hear from your MP;• Polls;• Hansard breakdown (motions, ministerial

questions etc)

Questions?