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Greetings readers,

We have been able to obtain the infamous  2007 parliamentary report on the Artur Brothers. The 4MB PDF file can be downloaded here

We have been working with the Kuweni Serious team to put together a series of videos and blogs featuring Kenyan voters talking about the performance of their MPs.   This is part of that series.

Starehe constituency is home to the street-smart and the hustlers. A constituency with one of
the highest levels of poverty, as seen in the largely unreached Mathare slum. Whereas Kibera
is overflowing with NGOs to the point where a conversation with a primary school child will be
peppered with NGO-speak like ‘capacity building’ and ‘resource mobilization’ from their end,
Mathare (as is the case with most other slums in the city) has been left to fend for itself. With
the notable exceptions of the Mathare Youth Sports Association, which has been responsible
for the nurturing and exposure of much of Kenya’s footballers; and Sarakasi Trust, which has
trained acrobats, dancers and radio practitioners, there is comparatively little NGO work going
on in Starehe. This is an issue that is of concern, as Mathare is home to some of the most drug
addicts in the city, not to mention some of the worst living conditions.
Starehe is also home to a controversial political battle between Hon Bishop Dr Margaret
Wanjiru and the previous (and possibly returning) MP, Maina Kamanda. This is something
that translates itself into the various observations about what is/isn’t happening in Starehe,
sometimes with curious effect. On one side of Starehe, those who support the Hon Bishop
Dr will eagerly show you the CDF projects that have been implemented since she took office
in 2008, pointing out the toilets and bridge that have been constructed under her leadership.
Those opposed to her, on the other hand, will be quick to clarify that the land on which the
toilets stand was meant to be a public playing field, that they are shoddily built, that they’d rather
have jobs than toilets, and will point out the huge field that Maina Kamanda’s CDF project had
fenced for their benefit.

It is difficult to assess which story is more valid. It is worth noting, however, that this is the one constituency in which more positive than negative sentiments were given. It would appear that Kenyans’ default setting, when asked about what their MPs and CDF are doing for them, is a standard ‘’nothing’’. The overwhelming number of respondents across the various constituencies were very clear about their perception of the inactivity of their leadership.

In Starehe, however, whether people were praising Hon Bishop Dr Wanjiru or asking for the return of Maina Kamanda, most people had a distinct opinion on actual work done, by either one or the other, which is not something that was seen on this scale in the rest of the constituencies.

Here’s a preview of our new look, keep in mind it’s still *very much* a work in progress.

We welcome your thoughts/feedback.

Hello!

We are pleased to report that the upgrade is proceeding well. We have just completed and uploaded an exhaustive overhaul of the underlying engine. This will make it much easier to not only add features, but also to change the look and feel.

Design work has commenced on the interface by the very gifted Jepchumba. The look and feel will be updated incrementally as the work progresses.

As mentioned before, we will be upgrading in place so we do not anticipate any downtime. If this will be necessary, it will be minimal.

Regards

The Mzalendo Team

Greetings everyone, and happy new year!

As you may know, Mzalendo started off as a discussion many years ago that quickly took on a life of its own.

We have been incrementally adding feature and content purely as volunteer work but with limited resources it has been an increasing struggle to keep Mzalendo up to date and functional.

We are happy to announce that as of this year we have secured a small grant from the Omidyar Network to revamp and revitalize Mzalendo, adding features and functionality that will make it an unparalleled resource in monitoring statistics and information on past & present aspirants and members of parliament.

Below is the roadmap. You are welcome to send in your comments and suggestions or email us at comments@mzalendo.com

Some of the features we intend to add include the following:

• Total revamp of the look and feel
• Collection of additional data: constituency populations, registered voters and votes cast, MP quotes, activities & calendar
• User logins using OpenID (Facebook, google, yahoo, twitter)
• User & comment rating
• Verified MP logins – to prevent masquerading
• Polls
• SMS commenting
• Constituency & district maps
• CDF fund & project tracking
• Graphs & statistics

Execution will being in February. While revamping the technical side of the website is important, we also need your help and participation as far as content – after all this initiative is also about encouraging Kenyan voters to be more active in monitoring their MPs – so keep submitting reports about your MP’s performance, send us your stories so that we can share them on our blog, and let us know if you’d like to be a regular contributor to the site.

In the coming months Mzalendo will be profiling some of the most active constituencies in terms of comments. We will also have a special focus on constituencies being represented by female MPs.

As part of our efforts to showcase the potential impact of combining technology with local knowledge, we have relied on local correspondents to provide us with these profiles.

Let us know what you think about the profiles and help spread the word.

If you would like to see your constituency profiled, please continue to contribute actively to the website.