About This Map
On 1st December 2012 the Traffic (Amendment) Act, 2012 comes into force in Kenya. The new law contains stiff penalties with the aim of changing Kenyan motorists’ bad driving habits.
On Thursday 29th November matatu operators, the largest public transport providers in Kenya, went on strike to protest against the new law. The operators claimed that the new stringent measures would give the police leeway to extort money from them and run them out of business.
Caught unaware by this impromptu strike by the matatu operators, thousands of commuters were forced to walk great distances to and from work.
As more and more people were stranded as a result of the strike Simeon Oriko using his Twitter account @mtotowajirani started the#CarPoolKE hashtag to harness the power of social media to encourage car pooling to get people home. The Kenya Red Cross Twitter account @KenyaRedCross got behind the campaign and flexed their considerable online muscle to help Simeon get the message out. Kenyans on Twitter embraced the idea and are using the hashtag to offer and request for rides. Civic compassion at work!
The team at Ushahidi started this map to capture, categorize, geo locate and visualise as many of those tweets as we could to help make information on who was offering a ride and who needed a ride easier to find to and use.
Please be vigilant when you offer a ride and accept a ride from people you do not know. The locations on the map are approximate and may not pinpoint the exact point the carpool is offered or requested. Please read the entire report for further information.
