January 10, 2007
From Matatu to the Masai: Part Two
Continuing his tour around Kenya, Newsnight correspondent Paul Mason sees how mobile phones are helping those that live beyond the big cities and how activists are able to reorganize. On the BBC.
"... When the residents of Kibera came together last year, it was the first time people from shanty-towns around Nairobi had properly linked up beyond their local issues.
They came together to fight evictions.
Nairobi People's Settlement Network used mobiles and the internet to get organised against evictions. They used what we would call flashmobbing to call people from across the many different and rival settlements together where big evictions were planned, and threatened to sit down in front of the bulldozers.
It has not been completely effective, since the bulldozers simply wait a few days - but it is starting to change the dynamics of grassroots politics. In Kibera most ordinary people can't afford mobiles instead they use the community mobile service, Simu. "
Previously: - From Matatu to the Masai via mobile - Part 1
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