Tweeting policeman - innovative way for cash strapped police force in Kenya to fight crime

*taken from The Telegraph

'Help, sheep missing': How Twitter is fighting crime in Kenya

Twitter is being used as a crime-fighting tool by a tech-savvy village chief in Kenya. Francis Kariuki, the administrative chief of Lanet Umoja, has used the micro-blogging site for everything from tracking down missing sheep to stopping home invasions.

Kariuki said that even the thieves in his village follow him on Twitter. Earlier this year, he tweeted about the theft of a cow, and later the cow was found abandoned, tied to a pole.
His Twitter account is so popular that, he says, even the thieves in his village follow him.

One night his phone rang at 4am warning him that thieves were invading a school teacher's house.

He tweeted the message - and within minutes, villagers had gathered outside the house, frightening the thugs into fleeing.

"My wife and I were terrified," said teacher Michael Kimotho. "But the alarm raised by the chief helped."

Kariuki has also saved livestock with his lightning typing.

One of Kariuki's crime-fighting tweets:

"There is a brown and white sheep which has gone missing with a nylon rope around its neck and it belongs to Mwangi's father," he tweeted recently in Swahili. The sheep was soon recovered.

Kariuki said that even the thieves in his village follow him on Twitter. Earlier this year, he tweeted about the theft of a cow, and later the cow was found abandoned, tied to a pole.

Kariuki's official Twitter page shows 300 followers, but the former teacher estimated that thousands of the 28,000 residents in his area receive the messages he sends out directly and indirectly. He said many of his constituents, mostly subsistence farmers, cannot afford to buy smart phones, but can access tweets through a third-party mobile phone application. Others forward the tweets via text message.

"Twitter has helped save time and money. I no longer have to write letters or print posters which take time to distribute and are expensive," Kariuki said.

Often Kariuki's tweets are about minor thefts - but they can also take a more serious turn

Kariuki, 47, said that he has been able to bring down the crime rate in Lanet Umoja from near-daily reports of break-ins to no such crimes in recent weeks. He also uses Twitter to send messages of hope, especially for the young and unemployed.

"Let's be the kind of people that do good for others whether we get paid back or not, whether they say thank you or not," one recent tweet said.

Kariuki said he intends to use Twitter to promote peace as Kenya prepares to hold another presidential election in the next year - the first since the 2007-08 postelection violence that killed more than 1,000 people.

A recent report said that Twitter is enjoying big growth across Africa. It said South Africans use Twitter the most, but Kenya is second in usage on the continent.

The research by Kenya-based Portland Communications and Tweetminster found that over the last three months of 2011, Kenyans produced nearly 2.5 million tweets. More than 80 per cent of those polled in that research said they mainly used Twitter for communicating with friends, 68 per cent said they use it to monitor news.

Beatrice Karanja, the head of Portland Nairobi, said the findings show that the use of Twitter is part of a revolution for governments that want to open dialogue with their citizens and businesses that want to talk with their consumers.

Rachel Bremer, a spokeswoman for Twitter, said her company wasn't aware of Kariuki and his innovative use of Twitter, but she called it "a great one."

"We are constantly amazed by the ways people all over the world are using Twitter to communicate," she said.

Flash-mob etiquette

I'm just wasting time looking at Stella McCartney's innovative 'flash-mob' fashion show that took place at the weekend.  It made me smile.

I'm not really au fait with flash-mobs, but for those who are out of the loop - the flash-mob is where people in public spaces suddenly burst into choreographed dances (usually because they are promoting something) leaving the remaining 50% of the people in that same public space feeling bewildered but hopefully, entertained.  The flash-mob will start with one person doing something strange, then five others join, then ten, then suddenly more until you might have hundreds dancing around you.

The Stella McCartney London Fashion Week Flash-mob

The only flash-mobs I've seen have been on TV or Youtube.  The one in Jamie Oliver's series on bringing healthy eating habits to the US where ee staged a flash-mob at a college where 50 odd students broke into a 'stir-fry-athon' accompanied by funky music.  There's also that big one in the movie 'Friends with Benefits' with Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake - in fact I think that there were 2 in that movie, the Time Square one (below) and the engagement one in the train station at the end (yes, the movie was a bit corny).

Friends with Benefits Flash-mob

I don't think that we are about to be treated to any Flash-mobs in Kenya any time soon (sadly) - but I do have one question on flash-mob etiquette which is; can one join in??

Wouldn't that be funny?

How would Stella McCartney feel if some of her fashion show audience got carried away and decided to grab a dancing, swirling model and invite her to a non-choreographed waltz.  Nose put out of joint?

Could be awkward...!

The Jamie Oliver one...

Jamie Oliver's Marshall University Flash-mob

I recently watched a Wedding Video where the whole thing was conducted as a Flash-mob, with grannies, aunties and ushers all dancing and mouthing to song words.  Now that was fun!!

Related post: Social Media - Veritable Minefield

Happy Austerity Valentine's Day

Our wedding anniversary is the day before valentine's, so I have my roses already - lucky me!  My husband swerved into the shopping centre on the way back from collecting our daughter from school yesterday evening.  He bought fab flowers with roses, lilies and swirly silver painted sticks - all set into oasis - which my daughter had to then balance on her knee for the rest of the way home.  I wondered what was taking them so long.  Meanwhile, I scribbled my husband a card.

A word to the wise - having a wedding anniversary on 13th Feb is a great cost saving idea.  It wasn't something that occurred to us straight away - but we've since learned that because you go out for dinner the night before valentine's, you actually pay a 'normal price' for your dinner and less for a babysitter - plus there's no problem with your favourite place being booked out or too busy.  Yay!

To be honest, we didn't actually bother going out last night - austerity don't you know - and the fact that it was a monday, we were knackered after a busy weekend and had to get up at 5.50am this morning as it's a normal school day etc etc.  So it was a night in for us, with the Downton Abbey Series 2 box set, and a boiled egg because neither of us was very hungry. 

Fortunately for us in Kenya, a bunch of 20 roses costs about a pound ($1.5) - because they are farmed here (no ranting about flower farms here please).  If you want top notch 'export' quality - you are looking at pushing the boat out to two pounds ($3).  A big fancy arrangement, 10 pounds tops.  Hooray for austerity!

Married for 13 years.  Oh the romance!...

'Mum, I can see a caterpillar'

'I can see a caterpillar.' - statement of fact.
'No you can't.'
'Yes I can.'
'No you can't.'
'Yes I can.'
'Nonsense.'

We are all sitting around the table for Sunday lunch (outside).  This reminds me of conversations I used to have around the table as a child - history is repeating itself - but that was another era.

'Well, where is it then?' My husband demands, stalking around the table.
'There.'
'What there?'  Disbelief.  'That's just a leaf!'
'No it isn't, it's a caterpillar.'
Now my middle daughter is now prodding her cauliflower gingerly with her fork.

'Oh yes, it is a caterpillar.'  My husband grabs the offending cauliflower floret and hurls it across the grass. 'Never mind.' He says,  'Now get on with the rest of your lunch.'

No one has much of an appetite anymore.
'Do we have to eat the rest of our cauliflower?'  All 3 daughters ask - spotting a window of opportunity - a viable excuse to skip the veg.
'Yes' I say firmly.

Then, a few moments later, I feel guilty.  I grab one of the 3 pieces of remaining cauliflower from our 6 year old's plate.  I can't help noticing that this one has a caterpillar's cocoon hidden on one side.  I point surreptitiously to it, to show my husband while no one else is looking.  He raises an eyebrow.
'Okay, no one has to finish their cauliflower.'  I say.
'How many caterpillars do you reckon we've already eaten?' My husband asks, staring down at his empty plate.

***

Now - it's not even as though this was an isolated incident.  Almost EVERY time I cook broccoli, there is accompanying wildlife that goes with it.  If I'm lucky the little green camouflaged blighters will float to the top of the boiling water as I cook - then I can spoon them out with the skill of a surgeon.  It's more difficult when you are talking about aphids or eggs.  The irony is - our kids like broccoli!!  I can't bring myself to strike such an iron and vitamin rich veg from their diet.  Occasionally, I feel cheered by the fact that perhaps this time, we've escaped the caterpillars - by some miracle, I'm cooking and the broccoli appears to be caterpillar free- but then I find one - and I know that there are bound to be more.

I think back to the days when I was a self-indulgent and spoiled student - I was fussy...cutting the rind from my bacon and the fat from my lamb.  Times changed.  As a newly-wed I found myself routinely seiving weevils from flour, picking stones from dry rice before cooking and tapping ants from the sugar bowl.  (By the way - it's so dry that now ants are back in the kitchen with a vengance). I've even been known to negotiate around the mould in a refridgerated jar of pesto sauce.  I'm not proud.

Lettuce is just the same.  I took some leaves from a Tupperware in the fridge that I'd painstakingly washed in boiled and filtered water a couple of days before.  From a leaf on my plate, popped the rearing head of a caterpillar - looking at me, looking at you.  I had no idea they could survive in the cold and without air for so long.  'Incredible resilience' I thought, before flicking it out of the window.

I know that I should be grateful that pesticides and sprays have not made Nairobi's veg into plasticated, chemical filled GM shadows of their former selves - like the ones you see in supermarkets back home where rows and rows of carrots and leeks are of the same size, weight and colour- but somehow I really don't feel all that that grateful when literally face-to-face with the wildlife that is inhabiting my food.

The most famous 'dudu' related incident in our family is when our middle daughter (it always seems to be her), bit into some mango that 'tasted funny'.  She looked up at the rest of the family and we all witnessed the image of a maggot writhing round between a large and beautiful front tooth and the top of her gum.  My eldest daughter since then has felt completely vindicated in her decision never to eat fruit.

What is the opposite of vegetarian?

I think that carbs and meat only is the only safe diet from now on.

p.s.  I think I told you about the time when the gecko fell into my coffee.....without me noticing...(shiver)

I can't remember the last time it rained...and the trials of working freelance

 Okay, obviously I do remember the big November rains, and possibly a shower at around Christmas time - but since then it has been Dry, Dry, Dry here in Nairobi.  Everyday is unfailingly sunny - clear blue skies.  I keep looking at the weather forecast and only find a week's worth of round orange suns in a row.  I'm not complaining.  It's heaven, but I do notice that the once green grass is starting to crisp up.  The leaves of our potted yucca plant have been blasted yellow by fierce sunshine.  And water is beginning to be a vague concern - as is usual for this time of year.  We've had to order a few water trucks since the City Council supply has dried up.

***

It's exam week this week for our eldest daughter.  She's only 11 but somehow the build-up has been seriously heavy going this time.  Kids are under so much pressure these days.  The school tries to strike a medium, suggesting: 'start revising over Christmas' and 'don't overdo it - yawning children do not perform well in exams'.  Peer pressure is as much about parents as it is children.  The result - we seem to have been focused on these bloomin' exams for months, whether we like it or not.

Admittedly, I'm not very good at 'revision guidance' either.  Yesterday I found my daughter faithfully re-creating her already beautifully executed diagrams from her science book (she loves drawing)- with a lot of painstaking colouring-in.  The Tiger mother in me flipped - 'Colouring in?! WHAAT? How about trying to just read through the book and absorbing some of the facts!' 

She'll be itching to leave home in just over a year's time - but I'm still not sure we'll be willing to let her go - poor thing!

***

"I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at 9:00 every morning."

Peter De Vries

At the moment I am supposed to be 'working'.  Freelance.  I didn't realise how much 'talking about work' and correspondance/meetings for 'lining up work' would be involved before actually DOING any work. 

For instance - we talked about me taking a train trip to Mombasa for a travel mag.  I did my research and got very stressed (last time I went on the train it was delayed for 5 hours).  Then the day before I was due to leave, the trip got cancelled - apparently the Mombasa/Nairobi train will not be taking passengers for the foreseeable future while repairs/upgrading are carried out on the carriages.  Phew. 

Other 'leads' seem, stubbornly, to prefer being 'in the pipeline' than actually bearing fruit.  Contracts look promising enough for me to feel stressed - about the prospect of being stressed and inundated... hopefully..sometime in the foreseeable future - but best not to bank on it yet.  Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out how many years it's going to take me to pay back the cost of the work permit.  As you can appreciate - at the moment this is difficult.

So, not wanting to waste time, last week I sent the Tiger Mother article to The Telegraph Weekend - "We did Tiger Mothers last Saturday so won't be covering it again for some time."   Duh (their Tiger Mothers story was posted online just after I sent my email).  Piqued, I stick the article on my blog instead.

I had an enjoyable time ordering snazzy business cards from uk.moo.com - however, not sure if they will ever reach me in Nairobi via conventional post (cost of DHL was prohibitive).   So I only ordered 50 cards and console myself with the fact that it's unlikely that anyone will be interested in lifting them from our postbox en route (as has happened with children's birthday presents etc in the past).

***

I've also been having fun familiarising myself with the local printer's shop.....

First of all I took a flash drive in there and it got infected with a horrible virus.  It was a very clever virus actually, some dodgy files appear on your flash disk named 'porn' and 'sexy' (please believe me! - none of my friends did - they just laughed in my face) - I didn't notice this until I got home, then when I did put said flash disc into my computer, anything I Googled took me straight to an advertising website. Word documents disappeared. Everything was unravelling.  When I worked out that this was a virus (with the help of a v. patient and also indignant husband who swore blind that he was not responsible for the 'porn' infection), then confronted the print shop (why on earth would I have anything saying porn or sexy on my flash disc I ask you?!) - the shop assistant admitted they had a problem - and that they'd had other complaints.  They swore that they'd finally call in a technician 'with a powerful anti-virus' to deal with the problem.

The second time I went into the same print shop (it took a couple of weeks to get over the first experience), I asked for 2 documents to be printed out and bound.  Admittedly they were quite big documents (100 pages each).

"Colour or black and white?" the lady asked.
"Um, oh let's go for colour." I said blithely. "Why not?  It would be nicer."

I went back an hour later.

"Not finished yet."  They said.
"Huh?"
"The printer is very slow."

I go home.  Went back two hours later.

"Well that will cost you around 100 pounds." they said. (Okay not quite - but 10,800 shillings!! Gasp!)

"WHAAAATATAATAAT?"

"Well, if you'd asked for black and white it would have been more like 25 pounds."

"So why didn't you say that in the first place?!"  I choke.

"You didn't ask." (She's right - I didn't).

I learn that many customers don't think to ask the price and don't particularly mind paying.  I notice a pile of x1,000 USAID documents piling up on another desk. 

"I guess USAID didn't ask." I say.  (Apparently they did, and they negotiated a small discount.)

"Why aren't your prices clearly displayed anywhere?" I counter - still in shock.. now getting bolshy...

"We don't do that - we don't want our competitors knowing what we charge."

I'm in that fug - a red mist - that I know will be impossible to get out of here without blowing a fuse at some point - but deep down you know it won't help - so I do my best to keep cool.  Focus - deal with problem in hand.... 

(It reminds me of a situation that I often find myself in Nairobi.  You  are at the till and suddenly get asked to pay more for an item than the price tag shows.  The shop assistant tells you, 'sorry, we got the pricing wrong - but if the computer says it costs more - that's that' -  You find yourself thinking nostalgically of Trading Standards back home; how selling something for more than it's advertised price is ....illegal - and then you give up - because there's no point in arguing, you are not so principled that you are able to hand the item back so you hand-over the cash - and leave the shop feeling robbed of a bargain.)

So - back to the printer's.  That's all my profits wiped from the first commission in one fail swoop.  Trying to negotiate the price down after the 'fait accompli' was no joke.  I don't (quite) lose my temper, but swear that I'll never go back to that shop.  However, inevitably I probably will go back (if I'm not banned) because it's convenient and who I am trying to kid - I'll get over it.

I do actually have a couple of commissions to get on with now, but as you can see I'm procrastinating as usual.  One is an article (at my suggestion) describing the highs and lows of working freelance - I thought that was apt - goodness knows I could do with researching the subject. 

- I don't think that I'm going to be very good at this. 

Note to self no 1. Go and buy printer cartridges.