A RESEARCH PAPER FROM THE AFRICA CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES

by Steven Livingston

November 2013

Africa’s Information 

Revolution: Implications for 

Crime, Policing, and Citizen 

Security
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies supports United States foreign and 

security policies by strengthening the strategic capacity of African states to 

identify and resolve security challenges in ways that promote civil-military 

cooperation, respect for democratic values, and safeguard human rights.
Washington, D.C.

Africa’s Information 

Revolution: Implications for 

Crime, Policing, and Citizen 

Security

by Steven Livingston

Africa Center for Strategic Studies

Research Paper No. 5

November 2013
For additional publications of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, visit the 

Center’s Web site at http://africacenter.org.

Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied 

within are solely those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the Department 

of Defense, or any other agency of the Federal Government.

Portions of this work may be quoted or reprinted without permission, 

provided that a standard source credit line is included. 

First printing, November 2013.
iii

Contents

Executive Summary ............................................................... 1

Crime and Stability in Africa ................................................ 5

Public Trust in Africa’s Police Forces................................................. 8

Police Corruption and the Breakdown of Accountability............... 14

The Emergence of the Mungiki ....................................................... 18

Impunity and Political Violence.......................................................20

ICT’s Role in Fighting Crime in Africa .............................. 22

ICT’s Rise and Broad Utility in Africa ............................................23

Viability of ICT-Enabled Collective Action to 

Counter Crime in Africa..................................................................34

Recommendations............................................................... 35

Notes.................................................................................... 44

Acknowledgements.............................................................. 49

About the Author.................................................................51

Africa’s Information Revolution

1

Executive Summary

Violent crime represents the most immediate threat to the personal 

security of most Africans. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs 

and Crime, 36 percent of all homicides globally occur in Africa. With 17 

deaths per 100,000, the homicide rate in Africa is double the global average. 

Rates of robberies and rape in Africa also exceed global norms. The problem 

is worse in urban areas, with many of Africa’s urban-dwellers “often” worrying 

about crime. 

The risk of violent crime has implications for Africa’s development, 

governance, and stability. Crime ranks as one of the major inhibitors to 

investment on the continent according to private business owners. Parents 

choose not to send children to school rather than put them at risk in highcrime areas. Countries with higher rates of violent crime tend to make less 

progress in reducing poverty and expanding development. 

Closely linked to the threat of violent crime is the weakness of many 

of Africa’s police forces. They are often underfunded, understaffed, and 

undertrained. Surveys show that a majority of Africans see police only 

infrequently, and therefore do not view the police as a source of protection. 

In addition to being ineffective in combatting crime, inadequate police 

training contributes to unprofessional behavior. In some cases, police are 

active participants in criminal activity. In others, corruption permeates the 

force. In still others, police use extrajudicial violence to intimidate and coerce 

suspected criminals, potential witnesses, and even victims. This generates high 

levels of distrust of the police in many African countries.

The acuteness of the crime challenge has grown with rapid urbanization 

and the expansion of slums lacking basic services, including police presence. 

In many urban centers, this vacuum has been filled by gangs and organized 

criminal organizations that profit from extortion, kidnappings, and violence 

against the local population. At times these gangs are protected by corrupt 

police or politicians. As these criminal groups expand into trafficking of illicit 

goods—drugs, cigarettes, medicines, and arms—they tend to link up with 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

2

transnational criminal networks, posing an even more formidable security 

problem.

Consistently high levels of violence have far-reaching implications for 

how youth learn to resolve conflict—perpetuating tolerance for higher levels 

of violence in a society. This, in turn, fosters the acceptability of political 

violence and threatens the viability of democratic governance, which relies 

on dialogue, free speech, tolerance of opposing perspectives, and protection 

for minorities. 

The rapid expansion and accessibility of mobile communications 

technology in Africa is creating new opportunities for combatting crime 

and strengthening police accountability. Twitter, SMS, and event-mapping 

technologies are being used to connect communities with police and security 

forces as never before. This is precedent setting for many citizens, especially 

those in rural areas who have grown accustomed to fending for themselves. 

Now at least they are more able to alert one another to potential threats, 

mobilize the community in self-defense, and inform security sector authorities 

in the interest of gaining protection. In urban areas, citizens who would not 

normally have many interactions with the police now have a number they 

can call in times of trouble. 

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) are also connecting 

societies horizontally in real time. This is forging cross-regional ties and 

linkages that may not have previously existed and historically have emerged 

only with the development of a national transportation infrastructure. In the 

process, both economic and social integration are facilitated. This enhanced 

cohesiveness can contribute directly to greater stability.

ICTs, often tapping into their crowdsourcing capabilities, also offer 

opportunities to improve police responsiveness and accountability. Crime 

maps provide the basis for allocating resources to match prevailing threats. 

They also establish a benchmark from which to assess the effectiveness of 

police responses. Bribe-reporting websites create a record and pattern of illegal 

police behavior that raise the profile of what are often treated as isolated events 

into a broader, measurable phenomenon requiring a policy response. 
Africa’s Information Revolution

3

While opening opportunities to enhance security and accountability, 

ICTs are not a panacea for resolving crime and corruption. Information is 

solely a tool and not the driver of reform. ICTs can be used for nefarious 

purposes—both by criminal organizations as well as unaccountable police 

forces. Rather, ICT-generated change requires an organized body of committed 

individuals who can use the increased accessibility of information to educate 

the public, engender popular participation, and press authorities for reform. 

It is this sustained engagement of on-the-ground actors, typically in the form 

of civil society organizations, that transforms information accessibility into 

concrete improvements in the lives of ordinary citizens. 

By lowering information barriers, ICTs are bringing discussion and 

analysis of crime in Africa out of the shadows, enhancing the potential for 

oversight of the security forces, and elevating citizen security. ICTs, therefore, 

are contributing to improved security through both internal channels via the 

strengthening of the state’s crime data gathering capacity as well as external 

mechanisms to monitor, critique, and hold the security sector accountable.

Africa’s Information Revolution

5

Crime and Stability in Africa

Chief Francis Kariuki received a call at 4 a.m. one night informing 

him that thieves were breaking into a nearby home. Kariuki is Senior 

Administrative Chief of Lanet Umoja, a Kenyan village about 100 miles 

northwest of Nairobi. Immediately after getting off the phone Kariuki sent 

out a message on Twitter about the burglary in progress, and within minutes 

a number of his followers had gathered outside the house and scared the 

thieves into fleeing empty handed. A regular user of Twitter to disseminate 

information about transportation restrictions, government announcements, 

and local criminal matters, Kariuki has earned a loyal following among Lanet 

Umoja’s 30,000 residents, most of whom are farmers or ranchers who access 

his tweets via text message on their mobile phones. After he began using 

Twitter to circulate information in this small farming community about crime, 

Kariuki noticed that crime dropped significantly. Twitter had connected him 

to his community in a way that dramatically scaled up his community policing 

efforts.1

 Meanwhile, he continues to gain new followers (see Figure 1). 

Crime in much of Africa poses significant challenges to stability, security, 

and development. It is often severe and violent. Africa’s homicide rate is 

more than double the global average. This trend is most pronounced in 

Africa’s urban areas, particularly the slums and townships that enjoy meager 

government services or administration. With so much attention given to 

violent rebellions and extremist groups, crime in Africa is often overlooked, 

both by governments on the continent and others.

Policing is similarly neglected. Not only are Africa’s police forces typically 

poorly trained, under-resourced, and overstretched, but, facing minimal 

oversight, accountability, and incentives to perform professionally, they are 

themselves a frequent source of criminal behavior. According to South Africa’s 

Independent Police Investigative Directorate, 932 people died while in police 

custody in 2011-12,2

 and there were at least 3 cases of police dragging citizens 

behind police vehicles as a form of extrajudicial punishment since 2012.3 In 

Nigeria, a presidential commission concluded in 2008 that policing featured a 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

6

Figure 1. Chief Francis Kariuki’s Use of Twitter in 

Community Policing 
Africa’s Information Revolution

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pattern of “unlawful arrest and detention, extortion, torture, rape, extrajudicial 

killings and other forms of brutality.”4

 A 2006 Nigerian government report 

bluntly concluded that, “The relationship between the Police and the public 

is largely characterized by mutual mistrust and hostility.”5 

This cocktail of factors—worsening crime within Africa’s booming urban 

areas and its largely ineffective and unaccountable police forces—has the 

potential of devolving into a more serious challenge to African governments. 

It undermines not only the safety of individuals, but also sows the seeds of 

instability more generally. A basic obligation of a government is to ensure 

the safety of its citizens, and “when the state fails to fulfill this obligation 

or, worse, provides protection to some groups but not to others, the people 

effectively reclaim their right to use force in the resolution of disputes, often 

with disastrous consequences.”6 At a Kenyatta University concert in Nairobi, 

for instance, a police officer shot and killed a security guard after the guard 

denied him entry to the student-only event. Students then beat the policeman 

to death.7 According to Kenyan police statistics, 429 people were killed in 

mob justice attacks in 2011.8 The actual number was probably higher. 

In such an environment, the legitimacy of state institutions is weakened 

and public confidence is undermined. There is a strong connection between 

rampant domestic crime and police incompetence on the one hand, and 

instability, underdevelopment, and regional insecurity on the other. Countries 

that experience high levels of persistent crime and violence, for example, also 

tend to have lower rates of poverty reduction, according to the World Bank.9

Such problems are borne out across Africa, where businesses lose a higher 

proportion of sales due to crime and spend a higher percentage of revenues on 

security than in any other region. High levels of crime also fray social cohesion, 

thereby further complicating efforts to address violence and crime. Frequently, 

criminal groups in Africa are co-opted by elites, politicians, and regimes to 

protect personal interests and to sway elections and political events. Nor 

are these problems limited by national boundaries. Areas of high crime and 

instability are prone to higher levels of organized crime and illicit trafficking, 

the effects of which rapidly spill across borders and feed many other forms of 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

8

insecurity. And once crime rates begin to climb, they are difficult to reverse. In 

a recursive downward spiral, crime undermines sustainable economic growth 

and good governance, which in turn fuels more crime and instability. 

This paper considers ways out of this cycle. If high crime coupled with 

ineffective and unaccountable policing are significant contributors to instability 

and state fragility, how might police and anticrime initiatives be strengthened? 

As the example of Chief Kariuki in Kenya demonstrates, one possible way 

is found in the deft application of already widely available information and 

communications technologies (ICTs). ICT initiatives can strengthen efforts 

to obtain accurate crime data, enhance community-police engagement, and 

create greater police accountability, among other advancements. 

Scholarship concerning the effects of technology on the nature of 

community initiatives provides a useful conceptual framework. Organizing 

community initiatives is costly in the sense that it takes time, requires money, 

and, in some cases, involves considerable personal risk to create and sustain 

community security initiatives. This analysis reviews the possibility that 

technologically enabled collective action—community groups pursuing goals 

with the assistance of ICTs—helps overcome many of these costs.10 Moreover, 

some of the governance gaps created by weak and ineffectual police and 

security services can be alleviated by collective action that leverages ICTs.

This paper is presented in three parts. First, the paper considers the 

severity of crime and weak policing in Africa. In the second part, the broadbased public benefits realized through several technological innovations are 

explored to demonstrate the viability of ICT-enabled collective action to 

enhance public security and to counter crime in Africa. In the final section, 

the paper offers practical steps for state and nonstate actors to advance ICTbased crime-prevention measures, including initiatives designed to address 

police corruption and malfeasance. 

Public Trust in Africa’s Police Forces

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Africa 

accounted for over a third (36 percent) of the total number of homicides 
Africa’s Information Revolution

9

around the globe in 2010 while representing only a sixth of the global 

population. At 17 per 100,000 persons, the homicide rate in Africa is more 

than double the global average of 6.9 per 100,000.12 In South Africa, about 45 

people were killed and 182 people were raped or sexually assaulted each day 

in 2012, making it one of the most dangerous states in the world “outside 

of a war zone.”13 Violence is especially onerous in Africa’s urban areas (see 

Table 1). Homicide rates in Cape Town, for example, have hovered around 

60 per 100,000 since 2001. The Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Uganda, 

and Zambia similarly score in the top quartile of homicide rates within Africa.

Surveys also paint a bleak portrait of crime more generally on the 

continent. In Nairobi, 37 percent of residents have reported being victims 

of armed robbery, giving rise to the unflattering moniker “Nairobbery.”14

Table 1. Proportion of Citizens in Select African States 

Who “Always” or “Many Times” Felt Fearful Walking 

in Their Neighborhoods, 2011-12

Source: Afrobarometer.11
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

10

According to one survey, more than half of the citizens of Nairobi worry 

about crime “all the time” or “very often.”15 In Lagos, Nigeria, 70 percent of 

respondents in a citywide survey said they feared becoming crime victims.16

According to surveys from across the continent, substantial numbers of 

Africans regularly fear crime in their neighborhoods. Property crimes are 

certainly serious, but violent crimes such as rape are devastating. In 2002, 

statistics suggested that a girl born in South Africa had a greater chance of 

being raped than learning how to read.17 Estimates are that more than 30 

percent of girls have been raped by the time they are 18. More than 37 percent 

of South African men admitted to raping someone in a 2009 governmentfunded survey.18 Behind these cold numbers is a long trail of ruined lives and 

deep despair. 

Meanwhile, public confidence in the police tends to be low. Surveys in 15 

African countries demonstrate that police are often viewed as untrustworthy 

(see Table 2). Nor are they a frequent sight for most Africans, who rarely 

Table 2. Proportion of Citizens Who Trust Police “Not 

At All” or “Just a Little,” 2002-12

Source: Afrobarometer.
Africa’s Information Revolution

11

encounter police in their day-to-day lives (see Table 3). There is considerable 

intercountry variance in perspectives, however. In countries such as Nigeria, 

Kenya, and South Africa, the majority of the population distrusts the police 

and views them as overwhelmingly corrupt. In contrast, perceptions in 

countries like Malawi, Mozambique, and Namibia are mostly positive.

Low confidence in the police may lead to skewed crime statistics, since 

many civilians will ask themselves “why bother reporting a crime?” Only 

about a fifth of Africans surveyed across 22 countries report crimes. The three 

most common explanations provided by those who do not report crimes are a 

belief that the police “don’t care,” that they would demand a bribe, and a fear 

of reprisals from attackers (see Table 4). 

Of course, crime in Africa is complex, making it difficult to generalize 

without feeding stereotypes or relying on conjecture. With more than a billion 

people inhabiting one-fifth of the global landmass, generalizations about 

Table 3. Proportion of Citizens Who Do Not See Police 

or Police Vehicles Frequently, 2011-12

Source: Afrobarometer.
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

12

Africa of any kind are problematic. A dearth of reliable, comparable crime 

statistics makes the challenge even greater.19 Indeed, with few exceptions, 

most African countries fail to keep reliable crime data of any kind. Available 

statistics such as homicide rates are often reconstructed from medical and 

hospital records, not from police reports. Even where data are collected there 

is reason for skepticism concerning their accuracy. As one analysis put it:

By far the greatest constraint to understanding trends 

in armed violence relates to the weak or non-existent 

surveillance capacities currently in place in Africa....

With some exceptions, African governments often lack 

the capacities and resources to collect, analyze and 

report the demographic and spatial distribution of armed 

violence—particularly in countries devastated by war.20

Source: Afrobarometer.

Table 4. Frequency of Top Reasons Given for Not 

Reporting Crimes to Police, 2011-12
Africa’s Information Revolution

13

Moreover, crime rates and trends vary across Africa. In 2007, for example, 

surveys found 57 percent of South African households believed crime had 

increased in their neighborhoods over the previous 4 years, compared to 18 

percent who thought it had decreased. Yet by the end of 2011, the picture was 

quite different. Only 37 percent of households believed crime had increased 

in their neighborhoods, compared to 42 percent who believed the level of 

crime had decreased. In other words, while widespread, complex, and deeply 

entrenched, crime is reducible in Africa.

Surveys in other African countries paint a similarly complex picture. 

While substantial numbers of Africans are fearful of crime in their own 

neighborhoods and perceive the police as untrustworthy, many report 

that their governments are handling crime “very well” or “fairly well” 

(see Table 5). 

Table 5. Proportion of Respondents in Select African 

Countries Who Perceive Government is Handling 

Crime “Very” or “Fairly” Well, 2002-12

Source: Afrobarometer.
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

14

Police Corruption and the Breakdown of Accountability

The problem of crime in Africa, then, is tightly intertwined with relations 

between the police and civilians. High levels of crime are a significant 

challenge on the continent, particularly in Africa’s large and still growing 

urban centers. Yet, among the affected, the police are not only distrusted but 

often entirely dismissed from the crime prevention equation. High levels of 

corruption and low levels of accountability of many of Africa’s police forces 

appear to be a major cause of this gap. More often than not, there is little 

political commitment to police oversight or reform. Instead, the police are 

frequently used to preserve or advance the personal interests of senior officers, 

officials, or other influential persons. 

As with crime, accurate statistics concerning police corruption are 

difficult to find.21 As one analyst states, “Because most incidents of corruption 

are never reported or recorded, official data on corruption are best regarded 

Table 6. Proportion of Citizens Who View “All” or 

“Most” Police as Corrupt, 2002-12

Source: Afrobarometer.
Africa’s Information Revolution

15

as measures of a police agency’s anti-corruption activity, not actual level of 

corruption.”23 Intradepartmental norms add to the problem. Police officers 

and administrators are not inclined to “snitch” on their fellow officers. Yet 

accurately assessing the nature and severity of police corruption is essential. 

Despite the lack of data, most Africans already have firm and worrying 

opinions about their police forces. For example, in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, 

and Zimbabwe substantial numbers report in surveys that “all” or “most” police 

are corrupt (see Table 6).

There are several varieties of police corruption (see Table 7). Opportunistic 

theft, shakedowns, and kickbacks are among the most common. Of the types 

of police misconduct outlined in Table 7, direct criminal activities, particularly 

extrajudicial killings, are the most destructive to the legitimacy of the police 

and the government itself. In his 2010 annual report, the United Nations 

Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions 

stated, “All too common are intentional murders in which police shoot to 

kill alleged criminals without resort[ing] to other appropriate measures.” In 

some countries, the security forces are directly controlled by politicians, and 

“security officials may conduct politically motivated killings, including of 

political opposition members or supporters, and election-related killings.”24 

This is a severe problem in several African countries. In 2011, Action 

Congress of Nigeria, a prominent opposition political party, called on the 

national government to take decisive measures to end the recurring killing 

of innocent civilians by police. The persistent extrajudicial killings would 

otherwise lead to a situation where “aggrieved persons or groups will take the 

laws into their own hands, thus precipitating anarchy.”25 This claim echoed 

a 2006 statement by Nigeria’s first Presidential Committee on Police Reform:

Extrajudicial killings, summary executions of suspects 

and revenge killings are also widely reported. Due 

to a combination of poor training, inadequate 

infrastructure, and absence of respect for due process 

and human rights, the police often resort to torture to 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

16

extract confession[s] and information from suspects.... 

Another practice that has brought the Police into 

disrepute is that of arresting relations of a suspect as 

substitutes or hostages. In addition, individuals are 

arrested and detained on flimsy grounds, with a view 

to extorting money from them.26

The practice of exacting bribes after detaining suspects creates incentives 

for preserving the egregiously poor conditions found in jails. The treatment of 

prisoners may also play a role in the lack of proper recordkeeping: 

Type Description

Corruption of Authority When an officer receives some form of material gain by virtue 

of their position as a police officer without violating the law 

per se (e.g., free drinks, meals, services).

Kickbacks Receipt of goods, services or money for referring business to 

particular individuals or companies.

Opportunistic Theft Stealing from arrestees (sometimes referred to as “rolling”), 

from traffic accident victims, crime victims, and the bodies or 

property of dead citizens.

Shakedowns Acceptance of a bribe for not following through a criminal 

violation (i.e., not making an arrest, filing a complaint, or 

impounding property).

Protection of Illegal 

Activities

Police protection of those engaged in illegal activities (e.g. 

prostitution and drugs) enabling the business to continue 

operating.

The “Fix” Undermining criminal investigations or proceedings, or the 

“loss” of traffic tickets.

Direct Criminal Activities A police officer commits a crime against person or property 

for personal gain “in clear violation of both departmental and 

criminal norms.”

Internal Payoffs Prerogatives available to police officers (holidays, shift allocations, promotion) are bought, bartered, and sold.

“Flaking” or “Padding” Planting of or adding to evidence.

Table 7. Types and Dimensions of Police Corruption

Source: Roebuck and Barker.22
Africa’s Information Revolution

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Many police stations fail to keep adequate records of 

their detainees and suspects, making it easier to execute 

them and dispose of their bodies. Victims’ relatives...

[reported] being denied the opportunity to bury their 

loved ones. Others reported having to pay significant 

bribes in order to retrieve the bodies for burial.27

Of the several jails inspected in the course of this research, all were 

overcrowded and limited to several small, unlit cells with wretched sanitary 

conditions. At one jail near a Lagos slum, an interview of a district police chief 

was punctuated by the piercing wails of a young boy in a nearby cell. He was 

accused of stealing a mobile phone. At another jail, a female inmate who was 

clearly in the last weeks of her pregnancy sat on the concrete floor just outside 

a feces-strewn cell where three listless men lay in the dark. 

These conditions appear to reflect the norm.28 Of the prisoners held in 

Nigerian jails in 2006, as many as two-thirds had not been convicted of a 

crime.29 According to Amnesty International, “The circumstances under 

which the Nigerian government locks up its inmates are appalling. Many 

inmates are left for years awaiting trial in filthy overcrowded cells with children 

and adults often held together.”30 With conditions like these, people caught 

up in police bribing schemes are more willing to pay whatever they can to 

avoid jail. Police corruption, then, develops a feedback loop. Left unaddressed 

it incentivizes further erosion of policing capacity, which in turn creates new 

opportunities for extortion and corruption. Besides the human toll, much 

harm is done to the legitimacy of the police—and to the state more generally. 

To fill this gap, communities that can afford it have increasingly turned 

to private security firms. According to one estimate, some 1,500 to 2,000 

security firms employ about 100,000 people in Nigeria. Kenya has about 2,000 

such companies, some of which have expanded operations to meet demand 

throughout East and Central Africa.31 There are as many as 430,000 active 

private security officers in South Africa alone.32 This mishmash of private 

groups in Africa varies dramatically in competency and integrity and typically 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

18

lacks any standards of accountability or regulation. The results of such informal 

and private security efforts can often be entirely counterproductive. 

The Emergence of the Mungiki

While the rich and middle class in Africa hire trained guards, the poor 

rely on various self-help strategies. In Kenya, this too often takes the form 

of vigilantism.33 While some of these groups provide a vital community 

service in the absence of effective policing, vigilante groups often degenerate 

into protection rackets and eventually become predatory gangs in their own 

right. One such self-defense group that strayed into criminality in Kenya is 

the Mungiki. This gang, dominated by members of the Kikuyu ethnic group, 

reflects the precipitous slide from weak state and failed governance to rampant 

criminality. 

The Mungiki were established in the Kenyan highlands in the late 1980s 

to protect kindred farmers in land disputes with neighboring Maasai herders 

and with security forces loyal to the Kalenjin-dominated local government. 

The founders claimed to have modeled the group after the Mau Mau, the 

Kikuyu religious and anti-imperial guerrilla movement that fought British 

colonial rule in the 1950s.34 With accelerating urbanization and demographic 

pressures, the group migrated to Nairobi in the 1990s. In Nairobi, in places such 

as Mathare, one of Africa’s largest and most violent urban slums, the Mungiki 

transformed into a militia, plying its trade of extortion and racketeering. 

What started as an effort to fill a security gap in the face of an ineffective 

and partisan police force became itself a criminal gang, further exacerbating 

violent criminality. As the Waki Commission, a government body launched 

to investigate violence in Kenya following the 2007-8 elections, noted:

Initially, the Mungiki were seen as substituting for a 

lack of public services in the slums. Later it started 

bullying individuals and businesses, including matatus 

[minibus taxi drivers] and owners of real estate, 

into making payments for services which it would 
Africa’s Information Revolution

19

provide, including connecting electricity, providing pit 

latrines, and meting out justice. Mungiki and other 

gangs across the country (e.g. Taliban, Chinkororo, 

Kamjeshi, Baghdad Boys and many others) grew and 

multiplied within the context of a political culture that 

both used and tolerated extra-state violence.35

In 2011, some matatu drivers staged a strike in protest of the extortion.36

In Mathare, violence has repeatedly erupted in response to Mungiki “taxes” 

on producers of a locally brewed illicit alcohol known as chang’aa. Other 

communities also developed their own “protection forces,” frequently along 

ethnic lines. Rivalry and conflict among the various groups often degenerate 

into gang warfare, especially in the slums.37

Faced with a violent and well-organized threat, the police often respond 

with equally fierce and indiscriminate methods. In June 2007, the Mungiki 

was accused of killing 15 police officers and 27 civilians, many of them by 

beheading.38 In response, police claimed to have detained 2,464 “suspected” 

Mungiki members. However, this may have been only a small part of the 

police response. In November 2007, the Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid 

Clinic Kenya, a human rights organization, reported that Kenyan police had 

killed over 8,000 people in crackdowns against the Mungiki between 2002 

and 2007, and that another 4,000 people were missing.39 Although the police 

denied these claims, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights 

(KNCHR) linked the police to the execution of at least 500 Mungiki in a 

5-month period alone. As a possible retaliation by the police, in March 2009 

the head of the Oscar Foundation and a colleague were assassinated in broad 

daylight in central Nairobi as they were driving to a meeting at the offices of 

the KNCHR. Just hours before, a government spokesman had publicly accused 

the Oscar Foundation of being a “fundraising body for...the Mungiki.”40 

In addition to racketeering and extortion, the Mungiki has been involved 

in the struggle for control of political office. Prominent political parties 

and politicians have used the Mungiki as a means of mobilizing supporters 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

20

and intimidating opponents during election campaigns. During the 2002 

presidential race, several legislators threatened to “unleash” the Mungiki 

on those opposed to their preferred presidential candidate. Several Mungiki 

leaders also attempted to run for key leadership positions in 2002 in a top 

political party, the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy-Kenya (FORDKenya).41 In 2011, the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleged that 

then Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Head of Civil Service Francis 

Muthaura, and President Mwai Kibaki, met with Mungiki members on 

November 25, 2007, to organize attacks in the Rift Valley towns of Nakuru 

and Naivasha during waves of postelectoral violence.42 Collaboration between 

criminal groups like the Mungiki and politicians is often short lived. Once in 

office, politicians will maintain ties with the groups but mostly with a view to 

the next campaign while the groups return to their typical criminality. 

Impunity and Political Violence

With 31 African countries scoring in the bottom tier of Transparency 

International’s 2012 corruption perception index, corruption is a serious 

problem on the continent. Yet attempts to shed light on corruption have 

often been met with police violence. Police are regularly used to intimidate 

African journalists, raid media offices, take radio and television stations off the 

air, and destroy communications equipment. In 2012, 46 African journalists 

were imprisoned.43 

In this context, political violence is merely one permutation of a larger 

cycle of crime, corruption, and weak-state disorder. Police incompetence, 

corruption, and unaccountability play central roles. Of the 1,133 fatal 

shootings during Kenya’s 2007-8 postelection period, 405 were at the hands 

of the police, and many of those killed were shot in the back.44 In some 

instances, the police “were so hostile that the local community could not 

make any reports. They would be told, ‘You are the perpetrators.’”45 Dozens 

of rapes were also reportedly perpetrated by police. Eighty-two percent of the 

victims of rape did not file a report with the police, and in 32 percent of those 

cases the reason given to investigators from the Waki Commission was that 
Africa’s Information Revolution

21

the police were themselves the attackers.46 Not a single police officer has been 

convicted of any crimes from this period. 

Owing to institutional reforms taken in the aftermath of the 2007-8 

postelection debacle, including the passing of a new constitution and the 

creation of a more independent national electoral commission, the 2013 

presidential election process in Kenya exhibited marked improvements in 

levels of political violence and allegations of police misconduct. Nonetheless, 

patterns of unprofessional police behavior remain. According to a Daily 

Nation newspaper investigation, Kenya’s police were exploiting stiff new 

laws for speeding and illegal overtaking (passing) of vehicles to demand 

higher bribes.47 Matatu companies and passengers were also affected by the 

higher costs of police bribes—commuters in Nairobi endured delayed trips on 

unpaved, deeply rutted roads in an effort to avoid police roadblocks on main 

thoroughfares where bribes were routinely solicited. More worrisome, Human 

Rights Watch reported in 2013 that Nairobi police exploited vulnerable 

communities, such as Somali refugees, in order to enrich themselves:

Interviewees...spoke about how police entered 

their homes, often in the middle of the night, and 

businesses to steal large amounts of money and other 

personal belongings and to extort money from them 

to secure their release. And they explained how police 

arbitrarily detained them...sometimes for many 

days, in inhuman and degrading conditions while 

threatening to charge them, without any evidence, on 

terrorism or public order charges.48

Whether the misconduct is egregious, such as rapes, beatings, and illegal 

detentions, or nettlesome, such as bribes, the result is the same. The legitimacy 

and respect upon which effective policing relies is undermined. It weakens 

key state institutions responsible for providing a central public good: stability 

and security. Such a governance vacuum is often filled by groups such as the 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

22

Mungiki, that without systems of accountability degenerate into criminal 

gangs further exacerbating the situation. Ham-fisted police responses then lead 

to worsening conditions and more violence. A feedback loop ensues steadily 

amplifying the problem. Grievances against the heavy-handed tactics of the 

police are at times exploited by extremist groups to recruit new members and 

justify acts of terror against the civilian population opening a more serious 

threat to state security. Such has been the case in northern Nigeria and parts 

of Kenya.49

If weak state institutions, straining under the burden of so many largescale challenges, are a principal factor contributing to crime, how can ICT 

affect positive change?

ICT’s Role in Fighting Crime in Africa

In 2012, two armed men in Johannesburg commandeered an automobile, 

forced its driver into the rear luggage compartment, and drove away. 

Kidnapping in the course of a carjacking often ends tragically for the victim. 

In this case, the carjacking victim avoided such an outcome with an astute 

use of technology. Using his mobile phone, the victim sent a text message to 

a companion telling her of his predicament. She then used Twitter to send a 

tweet to her followers who, in turn, retweeted her message to their respective 

followers. With each retweet the network of those aware of the situation grew 

exponentially. The retweet soon made its way to “Pigspotter,” a popular though 

controversial Twitter hashtag devoted to circulating warnings about police 

speed traps. With 110,000 followers, including a private security company and 

a local volunteer fire and rescue service, the posting on Pigspotter immediately 

elevated awareness of the incident. Using the mobile phone signal, the car’s 

location was soon identified. Two hours after the start of the drama, a tweet 

read, “Just received a call, the police have found him in Ventersburg! He is 

OK just shaken up thank you to everyone for all the help!!” The hijackers 

had driven into a roadblock set up in response to information gathered by 

those who responded to the original tweet.50 This is the sort of outcome made 

possible by the rapid growth in mobile telephony and related technologies.
Africa’s Information Revolution

23

ICT’s Rise and Broad Utility in Africa

 Africa has seen a 20 percent increase in mobile phone subscriptions for 

each of the past 5 years, growing from 2 percent of the population in 2000 to 

63 percent by the end of 2012. In early 2013, Africa had the second fastest 

mobile telephony growth rate (after China) in the world with 775 million 

cellular connections across the continent.51 In South Africa, Ghana, Gabon, 

and Kenya, there are already nearly as many mobile accounts as there are 

people.52 By 2015, Sub-Saharan Africa may have more people with mobile 

network access than with access to electricity at home. These individuals 

will increasingly be able to make video calls, watch video clips, or access 

the Internet on their mobile phones.53 While much of the growth in mobile 

telephony in Africa involves simple first- and second-generation handsets, 

more recent growth includes Internet-enabled smartphones. By 2018, 40-50 

percent of all mobiles in Africa may have access to the Internet.54

The social relevance of mobile telephony has been deepened by 

innovations developed by African technologists. Leading-edge innovation 

centers are now found in a number of African cities. Cape Town’s “Silicon 

Cape” has a counterpart in Nairobi’s “Silicon Savannah.” A technology 

innovation center in Nairobi, iHub, is perhaps the most well-known 

component of Nairobi’s ICT sector.55 Another is the Safaricom Academy, a joint 

venture between Safaricom, a major mobile service provider, and Strathmore 

University (Kenya). It offers advanced degrees in telecommunications and 

engineering and hosts the “Incubation Center,” a technical and mentoring 

program for ICT entrepreneurs. In Lagos, Nigeria, the Co-Creation Hub 

(CcHUB) is another example of an innovation space for social entrepreneurs, 

investors, and technologists. Nokia partnered with CcHub in 2012 to 

launch the Growth Academy, an incubator for mobile technology startups.56

Internet giant Google has also set up offices in Accra, Nairobi, Lagos, Dakar, 

Johannesburg, and Kampala. These are just a few examples of the rapid and 

homegrown expansion of the ICT sector in Africa. 

With growth in the mobile phone market and an expanding number of 

broadband services, Africa is also experiencing important growth in search 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

24

services. Google has reported 50 percent annual growth in search requests. 

Not surprisingly, 40 percent of the Google searches come from mobile phones. 

Videos viewed on YouTube, another Google service, are also doubling each 

year in Africa.57 Facebook is estimated to have over 55 million African users 

in 2013.58 

The technological innovations sweeping across Africa are not limited 

to mobile phones. Another important technology is privately owned and 

operated remote sensing satellites. A multinational fleet of observation 

satellites now offer high-resolution photographs of an object on the ground 

as small as 32 centimeters in diameter. They also produce geographical 

reference data that situates features on the ground according to highly accurate 

navigational references. Geographical information systems (GIS)—digital 

maps—are possible as a result of the explosion in high-resolution satellite 

imagery data. Satellites and GIS create a platform for managing and visualizing 

input from people with mobile phones. FrontlineSMS is open-source software 

used to collect and distribute information on standard mobile phones using 

text messages, facilitating input from hundreds, even thousands of users via 

SMS (short message service) text messages. Although it does not require an 

Internet connection, if Internet access is available, FrontlineSMS can be 

connected to online SMS services and set up to feed incoming messages to 

other web or email services. 

FrontlineSMS has been used in a variety of circumstances, all 

characterized by a lack of public services and an otherwise isolated or scattered 

population. For instance, in the absence of a state agricultural extension 

service, a variety of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have established 

information services for African farmers. The Grameen Foundation’s 

Community Knowledge Workers offers one example. Farmers are provided 

with information about crops, international market prices, and other services 

via mobile phones and FrontlineSMS.59 M-Farm in Kenya offers a similar 

service by providing real-time market prices for various crops and by linking 

farmers directly to buyers.
Africa’s Information Revolution

25

A similar technology, RapidSMS, was developed as a communication 

tool by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as a way to contact 

its teams in the field via SMS. Since then it has expanded to a wide array 

of uses. It can, for example, record and store audio voice messages that can 

be redistributed by community radio stations. This is a powerful feature for 

illiterate users. 

In Nigeria, RapidSMS was used to manage the distribution of almost 70 

million insecticide-treated nets to combat malaria.60 UNICEF’s Innovations 

Unit, in collaboration with tech-for-change developer Dimagi, developed 

an application called Rapid Android.61 Android is an open-source operating 

system for mobile phones. Rapid Android is a version of RapidSMS that 

turns a phone into a device for collecting and analyzing information to assist 

humanitarian aid workers in their efforts to distribute aid more efficiently. 

Members of the local population can be trained to use inexpensive and userfriendly mobile phones to transmit their community’s health, food supply, 

and bed net usage statistics to authorities via text message. Aid workers 

can aggregate and process the data wherever there is a wireless connection. 

Essentially, it has been used as an inexpensive but highly effective supply-chain 

management device. Figure 2 shows a RapidSMS “dashboard” used to keep 

track of medical data in Edo State, Nigeria. Using mobile devices for data 

 Figure 2. RapidSMS and Medical Stocks Inventory

Source: UNICEF, available at <http://rapidsmsnigeria.org/vlm/ss>.
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

26

input, the dashboard presents a real-time update of what medical stocks are 

where. Whether it is bed nets or vaccines, the same distributed network logic 

can be applied to manage other challenges.

In the absence of mobile telephony and RapidSMS (or FrontlineSMS) 

the only alternative means of achieving the same level of situational awareness 

and information management would be an elaborate and extraordinarily 

expensive bureaucracy of hundreds of field workers and supervisory and 

administrative staff with transportation and logistical support. Of course, 

it is exactly this sort of administrative capacity that is missing in Africa. 

Rather than elaborate, expensive, and difficult to sustain bureaucracies, 

UNICEF’s work in Nigeria relies on “crowdsourcing.” Villagers armed 

with user-friendly mobile devices accomplish what a bureaucracy would be 

strained to accomplish.

Crowdsourcing refers to the mobilization of the general public—the 

crowd—to perform what are usually small, incremental tasks that, taken 

together, accomplish significant goals. Today, one finds examples of 

crowdsourcing wherever there is an electronically enabled network available 

to connect people to tasks. For example, the U.S. National Archives invites 

the public to assist with archived photograph and document tagging. One 

example was a project to tag photographs of the 1963 civil rights march in 

Washington, DC. Accuracy is achieved in the cross-checking and review 

freely provided by members of the public. Another more elaborate example 

of crowdsourcing is Foldit, an online puzzle video game about protein folding 

that invites anyone to “play.” In 2011, participants produced an accurate 

three-dimensional model of an AIDS-related enzyme in 10 days, something 

scientists had been trying to do for over a decade.62

Another example of crowdsourcing is the Vancouver, British Columbia, 

Police Department’s response to widespread hockey riots in 2011. Dozens of 

people were injured in wanton violence that erupted after the Vancouver 

hockey team lost the championship series. A website maintained by the 

police asked people to identify photographs of those involved in the 

rioting and to contribute pictures or video taken during the riot to identify 
Africa’s Information Revolution

27

participants and perpetrators. As of December 2012 the Integrated Riot 

Investigation Team had recommended 1,040 criminal charges against 315 

suspected rioters.63 

Crowdsourcing taps into the latent capabilities of those in the general 

public with an interest in a particular issue or undertaking, such as crime 

prevention and police accountability. The power of crowdsourced data 

collection is paired with the data management and visualization power 

of GIS to permit “crisis mapping” or “crime mapping.” In actuality, it can 

be used to map whatever a “crowd” wants to acknowledge. Open-source 

GIS mapping is merely a way to store and visualize crowdsourced inputs 

concerning a particular issue. Ushahidi is the most commonly used and 

noteworthy example of an open-source GIS mapping platform. 

Ushahidi, which means “witness” or “testimony” in Swahili, is an opensource software platform founded by Kenyan technologists following the 

2007 general election to record and map episodes of electoral violence using 

mobile phones, GIS, and geographical positioning satellites (GPS). GPS is a 

satellite navigation system that provides location and time information. Built 

into most mobile phones, GPS enables one to know precisely where one is at 

any given moment. Ushahidi allows activists to leverage mobile telephony 

to crowdsource reports of occurrences of important conditions or events. It 

has been used in a wide variety of circumstances, from monitoring wildfires 

in Russia to tracking humanitarian needs in Haiti after the earthquake in 

2010. In 2008, Ushahidi was also used to track anti-immigrant violence in 

South Africa as well as violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.64

Another illustration is ReclaimNaija, which relied on crowdsourcing 

and Ushahidi to monitor Nigeria’s 2011 elections (see Figure 3). People 

called or texted reports of various types of events or activities relevant to 

the Nigerian elections. Each red dot in Figure 3 is an aggregation of reported 

events or incidents associated with the election. In an active, Internet-based, 

digital map one can click on a dot and zoom in to a new map specific to that 

smaller geographical location. One can also look at crowdsourced reports, 

news, pictures, and video relevant to that location. Questions such as “What 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

28

happened?”, “When and where did it happen?”, and, on occasion, “Who did 

it?” can also be addressed at little to no cost. 

GIS and distributed-reporting mechanisms, usually mobile phones, are 

also used to report, visualize, and analyze crime occurrences and geographical 

patterns. Today, one finds a wide variety of crime-mapping platforms in North 

America and Europe. Such technology-enabled policing is also emerging in 

Africa. In South Africa, the Crime and Justice Program of the Institute for 

Security Studies monitors crime as part of its effort to improve public safety 

and the performance of police agencies. A part of this effort involves Crime 

Map Viewer, a public GIS platform that allows citizens to see crime statistics 

for each police precinct in South Africa as recorded by the South African 

Police Service. Crime Map Viewer relies on police crime data. Of course, as 

noted earlier, the shortcoming of this technology-enabled effort is that reliable 

official crime data are often hard to come by in Africa. Crowdsourcing crime 

data collection, therefore, is an obvious alternative method.

Beginning in 2011, the World Bank supported a crime-mapping program 

in Nairobi’s Korogocho informal settlement to monitor conflict, crime, and 

Figure 3. Crowdsourcing Election Monitoring in 

Nigeria

Source: ReclaimNaija, available at <http://reclaimnaija.net/>. 
Africa’s Information Revolution

29

violence. The project was initiated by the African Institute for Health and 

Development and implemented by Spatial Collective, a social enterprise that 

develops technological solutions in support of collective action. The project 

involved an elected local assembly that met on a regular basis to discuss the 

community’s problems and identify the causes of conflict, crime, and violence. 

As part of this, the program supported community members in the collection 

of data on incidents of violence that occurred in select villages. Robberies, 

murders, thefts, rapes, stabbings, gang violence, and similar incidents were 

documented in detail, though with safeguards to preserve the anonymity 

of those who reported crime. A map of Korogocho was created identifying 

all major amenities (schools, hospitals, police, pilot project sites, etc.) and 

detailing geographic locations of the incidents related to conflict, crime, and 

violence. In 1 year, the local team recorded 322 incidents with clearly visible 

clusters of crime in some areas of the settlement. To ensure sustainability of 

the program, Spatial Collective created a customized monitoring platform 

that enabled almost real-time data entry and analytics, such as type of crime, 

and a timeline to display the pattern of crime by time of day, by day of week, 

or throughout a month (see Figure 4).65 

Figure 4. Korogocho Crime Monitoring Map

Source: Spatial Collective, available at <http://www.spatialcollective.com/>. 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

30

Liberia’s Early Warning and Response Network (LERN) offers another 

illustration of an ICT-enabled crime-monitoring platform. The Early Warning 

and Early Response Working Group is a consortium of 18 civil society 

organizations, government agencies, UN agencies, and NGOs. Over 2 years 

beginning on January 1, 2010, 2,335 reports were recorded on the LERN 

platform, including assault, homicide, gender-based violence, and corruption 

(see Figure 5). 

ICT-enabled solutions are not foolproof, however. Hatari, an Ushahidi 

initiative in Kenya, met with limited success, owing almost entirely to a lack 

of public engagement with the service. Hatari (“danger” in Swahili) allowed 

anyone in Nairobi to submit reports about crime and corruption in the city 

(see Figure 6). It is worth underscoring that police accountability was built 

into Hatari’s crime-mapping deployment. Information from contributors was 

presented via text reports (text messages, emails, website visits, and tweets), 

Figure 5. Liberia’s Early-Warning and Response 

Network

Source: LERN, available at <http://www.lern.ushahidi.com/>. 
Africa’s Information Revolution

31

pictures, and video. Hatari should have been a successful initiative. Yet, there 

were very few episodes of crime reported on Hatari during its active operation 

between September 2009 and November 2012.

What explains the failure? Crowdsourcing is only successful when 

there is an organized and effective mobilization effort, as was the case in the 

ReclaimNaija deployment in Nigeria. Otherwise, the crowd remains dormant. 

The effectiveness of open-source GIS crowdsourced platforms is not solely a 

supply-driven phenomenon. One cannot assume that the public will engage 

the platform even if the subject is a priority. Rather, community outreach is 

as important as the technology being introduced. 

Indeed, in an analysis of over 15,000 Ushahidi Crowdmap deployments, 

only about 500 realized sustained public engagement.66 There are two general 

categories of Ushahidi deployments: those in response to natural disasters and 

those in response to civil and political developments. In the case of natural 

disasters, the public is readily mobilized—which is to say they are already 

motivated to use a related Ushahidi platform deployment to call, text, or 

tweet reports, pictures, and video—by the enormity of a sudden calamity 

and the focus given it by local and global media. In the case of the second 

Figure 6. Hatari Crime Mapping Platform

Source: Hatari, available at <http://www.hatari.co.ke>.
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

32

sort of deployment, those centered on civil and political developments, the 

success of a mobilization is more dependent on community mobilization by 

civil society groups. 

In the ReclaimNaija deployment, months of preparatory work for a single 

predictable event—an election—made all the difference. A civil society 

organization called Community Life Project (CLP) organized and mobilized 

a broad array of Nigerian stakeholders, including youths, neighborhoods, 

and professional associations to spread the word of ReclaimNaija’s Ushahidi 

deployment and how it worked. The ReclaimNaija website describes the 

coalition of civil society organizations this way: 

The platform brings together a vast network of 

grassroots organizations across the country comprising 

mostly informal sector workers and trade-based-groups 

[sic] such as associations of mechanics, carpenters, 

vulcanisers, welders, okada [motorcycle taxi] riders 

and owners, market women and men, electricians, 

tailors, hairdressers, community development 

associations, activists, patriotic professionals, civil 

society and faith-based organisations.67 

A key partner of CLP was the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations 

in Nigeria (FOMWAN). FOMWAN was established in 1985 and, at the 

time of the 2011 election, was present in 34 of Nigeria’s 36 states with 500 

affiliate groups.68 This broad, multisector coalition was essential to the success 

of ReclaimNaija. Through FOMWAN, CLP opened up participation to 

thousands of Nigerians. They did so in novel ways, including using stickers 

on ubiquitous delivery and transportation motorcycles and colorful wristbands 

that provided the telephone number to SMS reports of election fraud. 

In contrast to ReclaimNaija, the Hatari example demonstrates how a 

crowdsourcing deployment is unlikely to reach critical mass without some 

real-world community mobilization. With a launch by Ushahidi staff from 
Africa’s Information Revolution

33

iHub in Nairobi, Hatari’s technical feasibility was all but assured. But no 

community meetings were held. No one engaged any civil society groups to 

adopt and promote the platform. Technology is only one part of the answer. A 

civil society engagement strategy to mobilize the public is the other essential 

ingredient.

The combination of information technology and engaged civil society, 

however, can be a powerful mechanism for reducing corruption. Bribing 

for basic government services, a mark of weak governance, is endemic in 

many parts of the world. “The going rate to get a child who has already 

passed the entrance requirements into high school in Nairobi, Kenya? 20,000 

shillings. The expense of obtaining a driver’s license after having passed the 

test in Karachi, Pakistan? 3,000 rupees.”69 Crowdsourced monitoring systems 

such as www.ipaidabribe.com, operated by a nonprofit organization called 

Janaagraha in India, allow citizens to submit anonymous reports of petty 

bribes.70 In Lagos, StoptheBribes! (StB) is an Ushahidi platform launched 

by the CLEEN Foundation (previously the Center for Law Enforcement 

Education in Nigeria) that crowdsources bribe solicitation by the police 

in Lagos. Motorists in Lagos are always at risk of being stopped by a police 

shakedown that is as unsettling as it is frequent. A group of police officers 

will surround the vehicle, then direct the driver to a local spot shielded from 

public view. From there threats are followed by offers to remedy the situation 

with payment of a certain sum. StB is intended to monitor the occurrence 

of these incidents and, eventually, through naming and shaming the officers 

involved, put a stop to them. Citizens are asked to submit SMS’s outlining the 

occurrence of a bribing encounter, providing the time, place, amount of the 

bribe, and the name(s) and badge number(s) of offending officer(s).71 

Whether it is via mobile phone, a broadband connection, or a GPS 

coordinate on a GIS map, Africa’s growing information sharing is empowering 

communities in new ways. In short, ICTs change the nature of community 

mobilization, though they are not a substitute. 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

34

Viability of ICT-Enabled Collective Action to Counter Crime 

in Africa

Although crime results from several factors, weak and dysfunctional 

state institutions play a central role. Professional police forces that do their 

job well are the best deterrent to crime. But when the police are seen as 

corrupt and ineffectual (or when they are themselves criminals) the public 

feels insecure while criminals feel unencumbered. Vulnerable populations 

then resort to desperate measures, including handing over a central element 

of governance—the provision of community security—to vigilante groups 

that can become predatory and criminal. 

The long-term solution to weak and ineffectual state institutions is 

found in building strong, capable, and accountable institutions. Ultimately, 

the best source of security is a government that is accountable to the public it 

serves and is transparent in its conduct. Civilian protection by a responsible, 

accountable, and politically neutral security force should be the end goal 

of law enforcement capacity building. However, for much of Africa such 

developments are long-term processes—while crime remains an immediate 

and severe threat. 

Technologically enabled collective action offers a viable near-term 

complement to traditional crime fighting efforts. ICT makes it easier for 

community groups and NGOs to organize responses to crime and even 

to highlight and thereby decrease instances of police incompetence and 

corruption. Higher levels of transparency and accountability can be achieved 

by mobile phones linked together in common cause by FrontlineSMS or 

RapidSMS, with much the same effect as a vast array of closed-circuit 

television cameras. Ushahidi or other data management platforms help 

visualize and organize data to optimize planning and the application of 

limited resources. In short, ICT can empower citizens to organize for 

community protection quickly and at low cost. Nigerians wanted a clean and 

fair election in 2011. Through the convergence of mobile phones, Ushahidi, 

and a strong show of support from civil society organizations, ReclaimNaija 

contributed to the realization of that community intention as well as to a 
Africa’s Information Revolution

35

significant improvement in electoral credibility in Nigeria. 

Still, ICT and its many applications are insufficient to effect positive 

political and social change on their own. Technology has no intent, no 

inherent purpose, and no moral bearing. It is a tool. Like a hammer, it can be 

used to build or destroy. At times, ICT-enabled collective action can lead to 

even greater violence, not less. While true in certain instances, this argument 

misses the key point: ICT can be put to any purpose subject to the intent of 

the users. For ICT to have a positive impact, civil society groups that link 

the motivation for societal reform to technology are indispensable. This is 

how civil society groups such as CLP, which spearheaded the ReclaimNiaja 

deployment, have been able to harness the power afforded by increasingly 

accessible ICT. Active civil society participation is essential to the realization 

of the potential found in ICT-enabled initiatives, particularly for the continual 

and widespread nature of efforts like community crime fighting. 

ICT-enabled collective action serves to steer government institutions 

on a path to greater efficiency and accountability. In some cases it is through 

naming and shaming, as when a website publicly documents police soliciting 

bribes. In other instances ICTs offer a means of measuring the severity of a 

condition, whether it is crime in a Nairobi slum or the number of homes 

destroyed in a police operation in northern Nigeria. ICTs can also form the 

basis of enhanced community-police engagement and raise the capacity 

and effectiveness of Africa’s police forces in an accountable and transparent 

manner. It is, hopefully, regulation by revelation. By revealing inadequacies 

or measuring the severity of a problem, the police, communities, and 

government officials are given an opportunity to address a more clearly 

identified problem. 

Recommendations

The rapid absorption and adaptation of new information and 

communications technology across Africa creates numerous opportunities to 

address widespread insecurity and crime, particularly in Africa’s urban slums. 

Advances in imaging and data management can improve police effectiveness 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

36

and optimize the application of scarce state resources, while ubiquitous mobile 

telephony and other ICTs can lay the groundwork for collective action and 

police-community engagement in previously inconceivable ways. Together, 

these types of initiatives can chip away at high crime rates, which have become 

a significant and entrenched security challenge as well as an inhibitor of 

development.

ICTs also provide the tools to confront deeper institutional challenges. 

Public security is broadly regarded as the chief responsibility of government. 

Police forces that fail to provide citizens with protection from crime constitute 

a major failing of the government, which in turn undermines its credibility and 

legitimacy. This is especially true when the police are themselves the source 

of crime and insecurity, which is too often the case in Africa. Correcting 

weak and unaccountable state institutions, particularly the police, then, can 

mitigate this deeper crisis of legitimacy and latent instability. The locus of 

improvements in transparency, however, must not rely only on institutional 

reforms and the good intentions of those in positions of power within those 

institutions. ICTs and crowdsourcing allow for the strengthening of external, 

nongovernmental sources of oversight to complement and spur internal 

reforms. They are new tools with the potential to improve transparency and 

performance in Africa’s police forces. 

In short, the growing ubiquity of ICTs in Africa creates new opportunities 

to advance:

◆ Collective action to improve community security

◆ Police effectiveness

◆ Community-police engagement

◆ Police accountability.

Three particular types of ICTs underpin these potential advancements: 

high-fidelity imaging, data processing and management, and communication, 

whether by telephone, SMS, or Internet-enabled smartphones. Yet, as we 

have seen, well-intentioned, technology-savvy interventions are insufficient 
Africa’s Information Revolution

37

without the most important element of community initiatives: the local 

community. The success of ICT-based initiatives is contingent upon the 

strength, size, and competency of the networks and groups that launch and 

sustain them. Moreover, new technologies are prone to abuse as well, both 

by criminals and the state or police. Hence, raising police accountability and 

ensuring appropriate protections and restrictions are vital to maximizing and 

sustaining the potential benefits of ICT-enabled collective action.

Collective Action to Improve Community Security

ICTs provide African communities versatile tools to quickly and cheaply 

improve their individual and collective security. The ubiquity of the mobile 

phone in Africa allows communities to establish methods for transmitting 

information about crime in real time so that community members can avoid 

crime hotspots or inform local leaders about percolating disputes to prevent 

further escalation. Freely available mapping software and applications can allow 

communities to perform some rudimentary tracking of criminal activity in their 

areas by computer and smartphone, thereby enhancing understanding of the 

causes and contributors to local crime. In conjunction with communication by 

mobile phones, communities could then organize safe routes and designate times 

for collective travel to key nodes of activity, such as markets, transportation 

hubs, or sanitation facilities.72 

These are immediate steps that communities can pursue to mitigate 

crime with limited outside intervention, but their success will depend upon 

the degree to which community members are organized. Even rudimentary 

initiatives require some modicum of organization since the input and output of 

many individuals is essential to their performance. What made ReclaimNaija 

such a success in Nigeria was not the Ushahidi platform or mobile telephony, 

though these technologies were vital to the initiative. The key element to 

its achievement was the vast reach of the local sponsoring organization and 

its network of community organizers who got the word out, far and wide, to 

remote communities that something as esoteric as a GIS open-source mapping 

platform could be used to prevent corrupt polling practices.
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

38

For this reason, international NGOs, international organizations, and 

funding agencies interested in strengthening ICT-based crime-mitigating 

capacity should facilitate rather than instigate such initiatives and let locally 

based community organizers lead the operation on the ground. The most 

appropriate role for international partners is to provide material assistance 

and perhaps technical assistance, though even the latter can be problematic. 

Technologists from the global north are often familiar with technical solutions 

that are complex, costly, and assume access to the latest broadband information 

systems. Africa is rapidly catching up with the rest of the world, but low 

bandwidth solutions found in handheld devices are still the most appropriate 

for initiatives in the region. Technology initiatives in Africa usually have 

to be homegrown and connected to local networks of citizens to succeed. 

Fortunately, iHub in Kenya, CcHub in Nigeria, and other African innovation 

centers are available, as are Ushahidi team members, FrontlineSMS and 

RapidSMS developers, and a variety of other African ICT innovators. 

In short, African problems are being addressed in ingenious ways by 

African technologists. International partners should focus on more funding, 

better equipment, and some training. The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau 

of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ “TechWomen” initiative, for example, 

brings emerging women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics from the Middle East and Africa to the United States for a 

professional mentorship program. With the expanded program, women 

working in the technology sector in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, 

Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zimbabwe will have the opportunity to 

visit the United States for a 4-6 week mentoring program with American 

counterparts.73 

Furthermore, the internationally based information sector can practice 

“data philanthropy.” Information is the fuel that feeds ICT initiatives. 

For example, companies or state agencies specializing in imaging could 

provide georectified satellite imagery and data, which serve as the maps for 

crowdsourced event mapping such as the Korogocho crime map described 

previously. 
Africa’s Information Revolution

39

Police Effectiveness

Information and communications technologies can serve as dramatic 

force multipliers for Africa’s often overwhelmed and cash-strapped police 

forces. With high-fidelity imaging, police can familiarize themselves with 

large expanses of places, even the often confusing layout of densely populated 

slums. Supplemented with simple data management software, police can 

begin to build vital crime maps so as to better concentrate their limited 

resources and personnel. Expanding access to mobile phones also means 

that police can stay in contact with individuals more frequently, easily, and 

cheaply, thereby enhancing reporting and communication. Even simple 

ICTs provide surveillance, intelligence, and communication capabilities that 

broaden the range of police capabilities. 

In Uganda, for instance, a researcher affiliated with Duke University 

partnered with Associazione Volontari per il Servizio Internazionale (The 

Association of Volunteers in International Service) to study displaced persons 

as they returned to the Gulu district in northern Uganda. Donated GeoEye 

satellite imagery was used to create a representative sampling of Ugandan 

people displaced by the 20-year conflict between the Ugandan Government 

and the Lord’s Resistance Army. The project is mapping the transition process 

as displaced citizens return to northern Uganda, which has greatly enhanced 

the stabilization effort, the targeting of interventions and reconstruction, and 

the streamlining of logistical needs and challenges.74 Similar uses of imaging 

technology and other forms of data management and communications 

technology can amplify police effectiveness in comparable ways.

The Nigerian police have piloted several programs to enhance 

surveillance and response using ICTs in major urban areas. In 2011, solarpowered cameras were set up in crime hotspots in four major cities, including 

Lagos, to provide constant surveillance. Several new police vehicles were 

also outfitted with locator technology that would allow for rapid and focused 

police deployment in the event that criminal activity was detected using 

the camera feeds.75 This program was further extended and now includes 

Abuja, the capital. 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

40

The challenge with such applications of ICTs is that greater police 

accountability is needed to prevent these tools from becoming the source 

of more efficient extortion or brutality by the police. The adoption of ICTs, 

then, must be accompanied by strict regulations that require the police to 

be transparent with the information they collect—for instance, by allowing 

Nigerian civil society organizations access to the locator logs in new police 

vehicles and/or to records from camera feeds. Data and reports should be 

shared publicly and frequently. Penalties and punishment for abuses must be 

clear and have an adequately deterrent effect. Fortunately, ICTs can empower 

new forms of community-police engagement and oversight by independent 

civil society groups to better ensure that they are used to improve police 

performance rather than to reinforce misbehavior.

Community-Police Engagement

ICT tools provide simple but persistent linkages between African 

communities and police, potentially in ways that can overcome the lack of 

trust between these groups. With mobile phones, Africans can more quickly 

and easily report incidents to the police and provide intelligence on criminal 

activities. Police, meanwhile, can maintain active links with under-policed 

areas despite their common personnel shortages. Oftentimes, these linkages 

can be established anonymously, greatly enabling civilians’ abilities to report 

tips without fear of subsequently being targeted, whether by criminals or 

wayward police. Ushahidi, for example, ensures confidential reporting and 

data sharing. Likewise, police can also begin to foster better relations and 

build trust with reticent or aloof communities by making themselves remotely 

accessible via ICT. In other words, if heightened police presence makes certain 

communities uncomfortable, the police can still be quickly reached through 

ICT. Essentially ICT reinforces community policing principles and offers 

dramatic benefits from economies of scale. 

Such community-police engagement can become more sophisticated 

over time. It may begin by improving reporting and communication but 

eventually can include police collecting data on crime through crowdsourcing 
Africa’s Information Revolution

41

in affected communities so that effective countermeasures can be taken to 

contain and prevent recurring crime patterns. In such scenarios, communities 

can submit reports of crimes via mobile phones to small teams of police who 

then can catalogue, crosscheck, and follow up as necessary. This, in fact, 

was the model used in the lead up to Kenya’s successful 2010 constitutional 

referendum, which passed with minimal disruptions less than 3 years after the 

widespread violence of the 2007 national elections that led to more than 1,000 

deaths. In 2010, Kenyans were able to file reports of hate speech, threats, or 

violence by SMS to an initiative called Uwiano (“connection” or “cohesion” 

in Swahili) jointly run by the Ministry of State for Provincial Administration 

and Internal Security and an NGO called PeaceNet. Analysts in the Uwiano 

office then triaged the SMS reports based on risk of violence. Tier-one reports 

were referred to teams of police or other authorities for immediate follow 

up. Based on information transmitted through Uwiano, police were able to 

intervene and prevent several attacks, even in areas that had seen high levels 

of violence in 2007-8, thereby potentially preventing further escalation in the 

tense electoral atmosphere.76 Uwiano was later expanded to be used to detect 

and prevent violence beyond the electoral calendar, and in 2012, Uwiano 

completed the launch of coordination centers in 40 counties across Kenya. 

Other crowdsourcing initiatives using Twitter, email, or online submissions 

have also been used to similar effect in Kenya. 

A lack of crime data is another major barrier to fighting crime more 

systematically. Therefore, community-based crowdsourcing data-collection 

exercises in select municipalities could go a long way toward filling the yawning 

gaps in data about crime in Africa. Such experimental approaches can help 

guide local police forces in identifying the most relevant factors contributing 

to crime, and thereby expand and professionalize policing operations. For 

example, crime-mapping initiatives, such as Liberia’s Early Warning and 

Response Network, can lead to stronger partnerships between local police 

departments and communities.
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

42

Police Accountability

A major contributor to crime in Africa is the dire state of accountability 

in Africa’s police forces. Sadly, the status quo of meager data on crime, 

minimal community-police interaction, and the ability to commit crimes 

with limited likelihood of being caught or confronted with adequate evidence 

for prosecution suits the interests of too many (though certainly not all) police 

officers in Africa. ICTs have the potential to upend this common scenario.

Mobile telephony, data management software and applications, and 

widely available imaging technology permit new methods of capturing, 

aggregating, and disseminating evidence of police abuses, from petty bribery 

to human rights violations and systematic coverups and corruption. Several 

examples of such applications of ICT are already underway in Africa. A major 

satellite imaging firm, DigitalGlobe, provided the Satellite Sentinel Project, 

which produces reports on the conflict in the border regions between Sudan 

and South Sudan, with in-kind contributions of more than 300,000 km2

 of 

priority-tasked satellite imagery. The DigitalGlobe Analysis Center provided 

training, analytic support, and imagery analysis to the effort.77 This allowed 

Satellite Sentinel to expose the role of the government of Sudan in the 

upheaval and destruction caused among rural populations in South Sudan. 

Similarly, Human Rights Watch used remote sensing satellite imagery to 

reveal the destruction of homes from a Nigerian military raid on the northern 

Nigerian town of Baga in April 2013. The satellite imagery undermined the 

military’s claim that “only 30 houses were destroyed” in the operation against 

the Boko Haram militants. “Community leaders said that immediately after 

the attack they counted 2,000 burned homes and 183 bodies. Satellite images 

of the town analyzed by Human Rights Watch corroborate[d] these accounts 

and identif[ied] 2,275 destroyed buildings, the vast majority likely residences, 

with another 125 severely damaged.”78 Other examples are less egregious, but 

still impactful. In August 2013, Lagos State Police Command dismissed an 

officer who was caught on film soliciting a bribe from a driver and threatening 

him with arrest for nonpayment. After announcing the dismissal, the Lagos 

State Police Command spokesperson said members of the public should 
Africa’s Information Revolution

43

make a habit of reporting such cases, particularly with such clear and detailed 

evidence.79 Meanwhile, the short video clip of the incident has been viewed 

over 123,000 times on YouTube.

There are multiple initiatives to identify and shame police corruption 

in Nigeria. The Stopthebribes! crowdsourcing initiative discussed above 

is one example, as is another initiative in Nigeria called Nigeria Police 

Watch,80 which is a multimedia online platform that aggregates news and 

reports about policing in Nigeria and generates original reporting based on 

incidents reported by users. Another example is www.BribeNigeria.com, an 

ICT-based civil society organization leveraging technology to create greater 

accountability through transparency.81 

Ineffective responses to crime in Africa sow public fear and distrust, 

undermine economic development, and bleed state institutions of their 

legitimacy. This, in turn, fosters a culture of impunity. This study has 

reviewed a possible way out of this cycle. While ICTs are not a panacea, 

if used properly and with sufficient community engagement, information 

technologies can harness greater efficiencies. Rather than building large, 

bureaucratic institutional structures, ICTs empower communities to watch 

out for themselves. It also gives communities potent tools to monitor police 

behavior—and when needed bring misconduct to public attention. In this way, 

ICTs can incentivize proper police conduct. By so doing, they can facilitate the 

institutionalization of professional police norms. For, while community-based 

initiatives are valuable in the short term, accountable, professional police 

departments are the best way to address crime sustainably over time. While 

not sufficient on their own, ICTs are an important element of the securityenhancing equation at all stages of the process. 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

44

Notes

1 Daniel Sitole, “Kenyan Chief Tweets His Way to Reducing Crime,” Inter Press 

Service, February 2, 2012. “‘Help, Sheep Missing’: How Twitter is Fighting Crime in 

Kenya,” Telegraph, February 20, 2012.

2 “Over 900 Die in Police Custody,” South African Broadcasting Corporation, 

March 4, 2013.

3 David Smith, “South African Police Officer Charged with Dragging Man Behind 

Car,” The Guardian, March 15, 2013.

4 Report of the Presidential Committee on the Reform of the Nigeria Police Force, 

presented to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (Abuja: Presidency of Nigeria, April 

2008). 

5 Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Criminal Force: Torture, Abuse, and Extrajudicial 

Killings by the Nigeria Police Force (New York: Open Society Institute and the Network 

on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN), 2010), 37.

6 “Crime and Development in Africa,” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 

June 2005, xiv, available at <http://www.unodc.org/pdf/African_report.pdf>.

7 “Police Officer Who Shot KU Student Killed by Students,” The Kenyan Daily 

Post, June 10, 2013, available at <http://www.kenyan-post.com/2013/06/police-officerwho-shot-ku-student.html>.

8 Cyrus Ombati , “Mob Injustice Cause of Many 2011 Deaths-Police Statistics,” 

Standard Digital, December 30, 2011, available at <http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?artic

leID=2000049182&pageNo=1>.

9 World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development (Washington, 

DC: World Bank, 2011).

10 Steven Livingston and Gregor Walter-Drop, eds., Bits and Atoms: Information 

and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited Statehood (New York: Oxford 

University Press, 2013).

11 All Afrobarometer data available at <http://www.afrobarometer-online-analysis.

com/aj/AJBrowserAB.jsp>. 

12 2011 Global Study on Homicide: Trends, Contexts, Data, United Nations Office 

on Drugs and Crime (Vienna, 2011). Emphasis added.

13 “Factsheet: South Africa’s official crime statistics for 2012/13,” AfricaCheck.

org, September 19, 2013, available at <http://www.africacheck.org/reports/factsheetsouth-africas-official-crime-statistics-for-201213/>.

14 Bruce Baker, Nonstate Policing: Expanding the Scope for Tackling Africa’s Urban 

Violence, Africa Security Brief No. 7 (Washington, DC: National Defense University 

Press, September 2010), 1.

15 Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007

(London: UN–HABITAT, 2007).

16 Etannibi EO Alemika and Innocent C. Chukwuma, Criminal Victimization and 

Fear of Crime in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria, CLEEN Foundation Monograph Series No. 1 

(Lagos: CLEEN Foundation, 2005).
Africa’s Information Revolution

45

17 Carolyn Dempster, “Rape – Silent War on SA Women,” BBC, April 9, 2002. 

18 “MRC: Quarter of Men in South Africa Admit Rape,” Mail & Guardian, 

December 8, 2011. 

19 Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, ed., “No Safe Haven: Annual Reports of Attacks 

on Women in Nigeria, November 2005 - December 2007,” Project Alert on Violence 

Against Women, 2007, available at <http://www.projectalertnig.org/pubs.html>.

20 Robert Muggah, “Armed Violence in Africa: Reflections on the Cost of Crime 

and Conflict,” United Nations Development Programme 2007, 2.

21 Janet E. Fishman, Measuring Police Corruption (New York: John Jay Press, 1978).

22 Julian B. Roebuck and Thomas Barker, “A Typology of Police Corruption,” 

Social Problems 21, no. 3 (1974).

23 Gareth Newham, “Tackling Police Corruption in South Africa,” Centre for the 

Study of Violence and Reconciliation, June 2002, 7. 

24 Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, 

Philip Alston (UN doc. A/HRC/14/24 May 20, 2010), 8. 

25 “ACN Tasks FG on Extra-Judicial Killings by Police,” Vanguard, September 26, 

2011.

26 Odinkalu, 43.

27 Ibid., 64.

28 Ibid.

29 Alex Last, “The ‘Notorious’ Jails of Nigeria,” BBC, April 7, 2006. 

30 “Nigeria: Amnesty International Delegates Say Prison Conditions ‘Appalling’,” 

Amnesty International, August 15, 2007. 

31 Ibid.

32 PSIRA 2012 Annual Report, Private Security Industry Regulatory 

Authority of South Africa, 20, available at <http://www.psira.co.za/joomla/pdfs/

AnnualReport2011_2012.PDF>.

33 Edoardo Totolo, “Kenya: Vigilantes Unleashed,” International Relations 

Security Network (ISN), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-Zurich, June 

2, 2009, available at <http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Articles/

Detail/?lng=en&id=100755>.

34 Caroline Elkins, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya

(New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2005). David Anderson, Histories of the Hanged: The 

Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005).

35 Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence (Nairobi: 

Government of Kenya, October 15, 2008), available at <http://www.kenyalaw.org/

Downloads/Reports/Commission_of_Inquiry_into_Post_Election_Violence.pdf>.

36 Stephene Sangira, “Matatus Strike Over Return of Mungiki,” The Star, March 

22, 2011.

37 Jean-Christophe Servant, “Kikuyus Muscle in on Security & Politics: Kenya’s 

Righteous Youth Militia,” Review of African Political Economy 34, no. 113 (Sept. 2007), 

521-526.
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

46

38 Tom Odula, “Arrest Reported in Kenya Mungiki Beheading Spree,” The 

Guardian, August 22, 2007.

39 “Kenyan police ‘killed thousands’,” BBC, November 25, 2007. 

40 Adam Mynott, “Rule of Law Reels in Kenya,” BBC, March 6, 2009. 

41 Adams Oloo, “Marginalisation and the Rise of Militia Groups in Kenya: the 

Mungiki and the Sabaot Land Defence Force,” in Militias, Rebels and Islamist Militants: 

Human Insecurity and State Crises in Africa (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, 2010), 

161.

42 Nzau Musau, “Kibaki Was in Mungiki Talks – ICC,” The Star, January 25, 2012. 

Oliver Mathenge, “Kibaki Met Mungiki Group – ICC,” The Daily Monitor, January 26, 

2012. Bernard Namunane, “Ocampo Six Ordered to Appear at Hague,” Daily Nation, 

March 8, 2011.

43 Center to Protect Journalists, Attacks on the Press 2013: Journalism on the World’s 

Front Lines (New York: Bloomberg Press), 262.

44 Neela Ghoshal, Turning Pebbles: Evading Accountability for Post-Election Violence 

in Kenya (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011), 60-61.

45 Ibid., 61.

46 Ibid., 22. Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence, 252-258. 

47 Jeremiah Kiplang’at, “Police Officers Abuse New Traffic Laws to Demand Hefty 

Bribes from Motorists,” Daily Nation, June 17, 2013.

48 You are All Terrorists: Kenyan Police Abuse of Refugees in Nairobi (New York: 

Human Rights Watch, 2013), 2.

49 Nicholas Kulish and Josh Kron, “Extremist Group Gains Foothold Among 

Kenyans,” The New York Times, October 10, 2013.

50 David Smith, “Twitter Helps Save South African Carjacking Victim,” The 

Guardian, April 11, 2012. For other examples of technologically enabled collective 

action, see Steven Livingston, Africa’s Evolving Infosystems: A Pathway to Security and 

Stability, ACSS Research Paper No. 2 (Washington, DC: National Defense University 

Press, March 2011).

51 “Ericsson Mobility Report: On the Pulse of the Networked Society,” Ericsson, 

June 2013, available at <http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2013/ericsson-mobilityreport-june-2013.pdf>.

52 Peggy Anne Salz, “Praekelt’s Jonathan McKay: Africa Leads In ‘Participation’ 

Mobile Marketing,” MobileGroove, June 30, 2011, available at <http://www.

mobilegroove.com/praekelts-jonathan-mckay-africa-leads-in-participation-mobilemarketing-9700>.

53 Madanmohan Rao, Mobile Africa Report 2011: Regional Hubs of Excellence and 

Innovation, MobileMonday, March 2011, 11, available at <http://www.mobilemonday.

net/reports/MobileAfrica_2011.pdf>.

54 Jon Evans, “In Five Years, Most Africans Will Have Smartphones,” TechCrunch, 

June 9, 2012, available at <http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/09/feature-phones-are-notthe-future/>. “Ericsson Mobility Report,” 7. 
Africa’s Information Revolution

47

55 Livingston, 2011, 27. Allam Ahmed and Sonny Nwankwo, eds., Achieving 

Sustainable Development in Africa: Science, Technology & Innovation Trajectory (World 

Association for Sustainable Development (WASD), February 2010).

56 Elly Okutoyi, “Nokia Partners with Nigeria’s CcHub to Launch a Mobile 

Software Accelerator Academy,” The Next Web (TNW), May 28, 2012, available at 

<http://thenextweb.com/africa/2012/05/28/nokia-partners-with-nigerias-cchub-tolaunch-a-mobile-software-accelerator-academy/>. 

57 Christopher Davies, “Google Search Requests Growing 50 Percent Each Year in 

Africa,” African Business Review, February 23, 2011.

58 “Internet Usage Statistics for Africa (Africa Internet Usage and Population 

Stats),” Internet World Stats, available at <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.

htm>.

59 “Grameen Foundation Expands Technology Program for Poor Farmers 

in Uganda,” Grameen Foundation, October 15, 2009, available at <http://www.

grameenfoundation.org/grameen-foundation-expands-technology-program-poor-farmersuganda>.

60 “Nigeria – Monitoring Supplies,” RapidSMS, available at <http://www.rapidsms.

org/case-studies/nigeria-monitoring-supplies-in-a-campaign-setting/>.

61 Matt Berg, “Rapid Android (RapidSMS) Launched on Android!” BuildAfrica.

org, February 12, 2009, available at <http://www.buildafrica.org/2009/02/12/rapidandroid-rapidsms-launched-on-android/>.

62 Matt Peckham, “Foldit Gamers Solve AIDS Puzzle That Baffled Scientists for a 

Decade,” Time, September 19, 2011.

63 “Riot: Recommended Charges Against 40 More Rioters,” The Vancouver Police 

Department media release, December 21, 2012, available at <http://mediareleases.vpd.

ca/2012/12/21/riot-recommended-charges-against-40-more-rioters/>.

64 Alka Marwaha, “Web tool maps Congo conflict,” BBC, December 10, 2008. 

65 “Conflict, Crime, and Violence Monitoring in Korogocho,” Spatial Collective, 

November 15, 2012, available at <http://www.spatialcollective.com/2012/11/15/conflictcrime-and-violence-monitoring-in-korogocho/>.

66 Catie Bailard, Rob Baker, Matt Hindman, Steven Livingston, and Patrick Meier, 

“Mapping the Maps: A Meta-Level Analysis of Ushahidi & Crowdmap,” Internews 

Center for Innovation & Learning, Washington DC, May 2012, available at <http://

crowdglobe.net/report>.

67 “Who We Are,” ReclaimNaija, available at <http://www.reclaimnaija.net/cms/

about-us/who-we-are>. 

68 Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN), available 

at <http://www.fomwan.org/>.

69 Stephanie Strom, “Web Sites Shine Light on Petty Bribery Worldwide,” The 

New York Times, March 6, 2012. 

70 I Paid a Bribe website, available at <http://www.ipaidabribe.com/>.
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

48

71 StoptheBribes! website, available at <http://www.stopthebribes.net>. It should 

be noted that the author played a role in the early development of this initiative. He 

serves on the StoptheBribes! advisory board of the CLEEN Foundation in Lagos. 

72 “Safety in Our Hands: Innovations in Community Security Using Mobile 

Technology,” STATT Consulting, April 2013, available at <http://www.statt.net/

wp-content/uploads/2013/04/STATT-Promoting-Community-Safety-through-MobileTechnology.pdf>.

73 Techwomen website, available at <http://www.techwomen.org>.

74 “Measuring the Effects of Displacement in Northern Uganda,” GeoEye 

Foundation, available at <http://geoeye.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=27291>.

75 “Police - Going Digital for Better Security,” Vanguard, June 17, 2011.

76 “Kenya: SOS by SMS,” IRIN, August 3, 2010. 

77 In 2012, GeoEye was acquired by Digital Globe, its main competitor. Steven 

Overly, “GeoEye, DigitalGlobe combine in $900M deal,” The Washington Post, July 23, 

2012.

78 “Nigeria: Satellite Images Reveal Massive Destruction in Baga,” Human Rights 

Watch, May 1, 2013, available at <http://multimedia.hrw.org/distribute/jgqxzwdoph>. 

79 “Policeman Caught Extorting Motorist On Camera Dismissed,” The Punch, 

August 7, 2013.

80 Nigeria Police Watch website, available at <http://www.nigeriapolicewatch.

com/>.

81 “About Us,” BribeNigeria webite, available at <http://www.bribenigeria.com/

about-us/>.
Africa’s Information Revolution

49

Acknowledgements

I want to thank the many people in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, 

Uganda, and the United States who took time to meet with me, often on short 

notice—or with no notice at all. Police officers, judges, members of community 

groups, prisoners, academics, advocates, and everyday citizens all contributed 

in their respective way to this study. I of course shoulder the responsibility for 

errors that are found in its pages. I want to offer a special thanks to Innocent 

Chukwuma, the founder and former director of the CLEEN Foundation in 

Nigeria, for helping me understand the connections between crime and police 

misconduct and for arranging several days of interviews and visits to police 

stations and jails in and around Lagos. Raphael Mbaegbu, who is also with the 

CLEEN Foundation, accompanied me on these visits. He and his colleagues 

were inspirational as well as deeply informative. Thank you especially for your 

coolheaded negotiations out of several tight spots. 

In South Africa, Gareth Newham, Head of the Governance, Crime, 

and Justice Division at the Institute for Security Studies in Cape Town, was 

extraordinarily helpful and generous with his time. He opened doors to several 

high-profile interviews, and I have relied on his many publications while 

preparing this study. Neela Ghoshal of Human Rights Watch was a source of 

great help in my efforts to see and understand the bigger picture concerning 

security and policing in Kenya. My friend and colleague Primož Kovačič, 

co-founder of Spatial Collective, facilitated my access to the sometimes 

challenging and dangerous slums of Nairobi. I am in his debt, and in the 

debt of the many people of Mathare who looked out for my wellbeing. Denis 

Richardson, managing director of CLS Ltd. in Kampala was very helpful in 

arranging visits to ICT projects across Uganda. Kimberly Easson has made 

enormous contributions to my thinking about economic development in the 

global south. I have learned from her insights and been inspired by her passion. 

My colleagues at the School of Media and Public Affairs at The George 

Washington University are a constant source of insight and inspiration. And 

it is especially pleasing to have W. Lance Bennett, my friend of 30 years, 
ACSS Research Paper, No. 5

50

walking with me in this exciting new world of collective action. Thanks 

for showing the way, yet again. Bruce Bimber’s insights from a decade ago 

are the source of much of what I think about today. Gregor Walter-Drop’s 

boundless enthusiasm and intellectual generosity have helped me sort out 

my sometimes inchoate thinking. Davin O’Regan, Research Associate at 

the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, has made many crucial contributions 

to this study, including valuable early suggestions and several substantive 

contributions to the final preparation of the manuscript. I also want to thank 

Joseph Siegle, Research Director at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 

for his perseverance in getting this study out the door, finally. At every phase 

of its preparation, his guidance has been invaluable. Working with him these 

past few years, on this and other projects, has been extraordinarily helpful. 

He has deepened my thinking about collective action, technology, and the 

state. Thank you. 
Africa’s Information Revolution

51

About the Author

Steven Livingston is Professor of Media and Public Affairs and 

International Affairs at The George Washington University. His research 

appears in leading scholarly journals and he is co-editor of the forthcoming 

Bits and Atoms: Information and Communication Technology in Areas of Limited 

Statehood (Oxford University Press, 2013). He can be contacted at sliv@gwu.

edu.

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