Kenyan bloggers need your support

Most of you probably have been following the news about Kenya lately. I was there only two months ago and had the opportunity to meet some interesting bloggers. Television was fully covering and broadcasting about the election's campaigns at that time. When the elections took place on the 27 December, the result was promising. A surprising high figure of Kenyans participated in the elections. But soon after this, the situation turned very sadly. Manipulation of votes was manifested by EU observers and since then it has been unclear who won the presidential elections. Unfortunately, this turned into massive riots and even to a media blackout. I read somewhere that the Kenyan economy has a damage of more than one billion dollars.

Thanks to bloggers informing directly from Kenya, we had a more clear picture about what was really happening there. Things went by so quickly that I only twittered about it and hoped to get attention on it in my network. There is a twitter Kenyan news service. I am impressed by bloggers such as Daudi, who I had a chance to meet in Nairobi. They went on to the streets, reported what was -- and still is -- happening and documented it with photos or videos. So a week ago I wrote Daudi asking about how can I support the cause of bloggers. He replied that a donation for the Kenyan Red Cross or air time (mobile phone time) for bloggers would be best. So that way they can report from different places and collect information on what is happening around the country. A service (mashup) has been set up to document the violent incidents all over Kenya.

**There is a great and easy way to donate to the brave work of the bloggers. Simply by using paypal, you can donate air time or give money to the Kenyen Red Cross. **To do this go to mamamikes.com. **The process is very easy and secure. **Martin Kasomo from mamamikes sent me an email, and I hope I can support through this blog post the initiative:

Help Kenyans in Crisis

You watch the news; you have seen the Red Cross volunteers trying to feed the multitudes of Kenyans displaced by the post-election violence. Only Jesus could feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. The Kenya Red Cross, however are only human, that is why they need your help to pull off this miracle. You can log on to www.mamamikes.com and buy a voucher for Kenyans in Distress. These vouchers will be used to buy much needed supplies for distribution by the Kenya Red Cross. The vouchers come in various denominations from $10 to $75.No service fee will be charged for these vouchers and ALL contributions will be distributed by the Kenya Red Cross. All we can ask is that you do whatever you can.

Here are more information about how you can help.