Kikasha is a social media platform dedicated to promoting good governance, civic engagement, and citizen-centered leadership.

What is the mission?

Its mission is to make the world a better place.

Objectives

Broadly, the key objective toward this mission is promoting good governance. Broken down to specifics, this objective encompasses leveraging digital tools to provide a direct channel through which citizens can:

• Engage in robust discussions or dialogues on issues of public interest.
• Share ideas and other information with specific government departments with a view to promoting the public interest.
• Provide a simple channel through which citizens can give feedback to government officials, and the latter can receive the same.
• Expose corrupt and incompetent officials.
• Report other forms of crime outside of government offices to relevant government departments and agencies.
• Enable citizens to influence the formulation and implementation of government policies.
• Enable citizens to channel their inquiries, complaints, and concerns to relevant public officials.

Cumulatively, these tools help promote good governance, which is key in making the world a better place.

How does it achieve these objectives?

To achieve these objectives, the app provides a range of features that cannot be found in any other single existing social media platform. These include digital pigeonholes for every government department, a tool for anonymous posting, a subscription feature to access anonymous posts, as well as tools for petitions, opinion polls, and private forums for users with shared interests.

How it works

Pigeonholes: The app features a digital pigeonhole called Tags for every government department. This digital pigeonhole is, as it were, the post office box of that department where citizens send their messages in the form of text, video, audio, pictures, or any combination thereof, to the specific government department of their interest. Officials will only need to log into the app and their pigeonhole to see what the people are telling them.

Anonymous and Non-anonymity: There are two ways through which citizens can send information to the pigeonhole. On the one hand, citizens/users can share information openly, just as they do on other social media platforms. In this case, messages sent openly will appear both in the pigeonhole of the targeted government department and on the public timeline of the app. On the other hand, it is acknowledged that some of the information users may want to share may be sensitive and could result in court cases or reprisals, including physical harm, against the sender. For this reason, the app provides an anonymous feature which, when switched on, enables users to conceal their identity. In this case, messages sent anonymously do not appear on the public timeline of the app. They only appear as anonymous posts in the pigeonhole of the intended government department.

Ancillary Tools: Besides enabling citizens to engage easily from the comfort of their phones and homes, the app also equips citizens with critically important digital tools for influencing the actions of government officials. These include tools for creating petitions and conducting opinion polls. Opinion polls and petitions are known to be effective tools for influencing the actions of government officials and informing policy formulation. The app also enables people with shared interests, for example, small traders' associations, to create their own private forums where they can discuss their issues privately. Forums enable people with shared interests to overcome organizational and communication challenges that often bedevil effective interest representation. Besides pursuing a public agenda, all these tools are also open for citizens or users to deploy for private interests. For example, a private company or any government agency not already catered for in the app can create a custom tag/pigeonhole for the purpose of engaging with its clientele.

Advantages

At a time when the liberal order is steeped in a crisis, the use of Kikasha will go a long way in amplifying the voices of ordinary people. By enhancing communication between citizens and leaders, the app will not only enable government officials to interact with a wide range of perspectives and ideas on various issues but also capture the real needs of the people. It will also enable leaders to access feedback on various government policies, programs, and projects from the public, which is essential in improving service delivery. Additionally, shining a spotlight on the conduct of government officials and exposing misconduct by officials and ordinary citizens alike will also help in promoting good governance. Cumulatively, the app will contribute towards making the world a better place for all. Furthermore, the app will provide citizens with the tools they need for mobilizing action in pursuit of causes that are in the public interest. In this regard, the app enables users to petition government officials and to create opinion polls that demonstrate public preferences on various issues. However, nothing stops private citizens from utilizing these tools for private interests. The app is particularly beneficial to interest-based groups, such as Boda Boda operators, teachers' unions, labor unions, business groups such as matatu operators, etc., as it enables them to create their own forums where they can deliberate on their issues privately and communicate easily, seamlessly, affordably, and in real time. Kikasha enables such groups that form their own forums to function and serve their members more efficiently.