• Log in
  • Sign up
  •  
  • About
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Rainmakers
  • 88mph Garage Nairobi
 
HumanIPOHome to African Tech
    
  • News
  • Activity
  • Startups
  • People
  • Investors

Follow African Tech scene

You have successfully subscribed!

Notify me!

Featured news

Kenyan taxi drivers and car owners seize Twitter’s carpooling to make moneyKenyans in Diaspora to vote online in 2017

In partnership with:

Most read

  • Safaricom launches paperless, no collateral credit service MShwari

    November 27, 2012

  • Congo rebel group M23 leaves Facebook

    December 3, 2012

  • Mobile money transfers in Kenya close to country’s national budget

    November 27, 2012

  • Kenyan media network launches road traffic management app

    November 27, 2012

  • thumbzup for Absa's "world-first" payment device

    November 29, 2012

Latest by country

Kenya

  • One-fifth of African countries likely to witness Internet switch off

    December 4, 2012

  • iPhone 5 coming to Kenya this December

    December 4, 2012

South Africa

  • Gautrain to have full mobile services within two years

    December 4, 2012

  • iTunes Music Store now in South Africa

    December 4, 2012

Nigeria

  • Electronic transactions in Nigeria passes one trillion naira mark

    December 4, 2012

  • NigComSat boss promises Nigerians more bandwidth, denies commission function duplication

    December 4, 2012

Follow us!

HumanIPO Twitter feed

Follow entrepreneurs, investors and tech enthusiasts!

Join today!

Latest by category

Startups

  • Interview: Justin Stanford, founding partner, 4Di Capital

    December 4, 2012

  • WhatsApp denies Facebook is set to buy it

    December 4, 2012

Mobile

  • Electronic transactions in Nigeria passes one trillion naira mark

    December 4, 2012

  • Gautrain to have full mobile services within two years

    December 4, 2012

Internet

  • Electronic transactions in Nigeria passes one trillion naira mark

    December 4, 2012

  • One-fifth of African countries likely to witness Internet switch off

    December 4, 2012

Telecoms

  • One-fifth of African countries likely to witness Internet switch off

    December 4, 2012

  • MTN Group to sell some of its mobile network towers to IHS

    December 4, 2012

Features

  • Interview: Justin Stanford, founding partner, 4Di Capital

    December 4, 2012

  • Kenyans in Diaspora to vote online in 2017

    December 3, 2012

Events

  • Sanitation Hackathon winners believe political will is main obstacle between technology and citizens

    December 4, 2012

  • Broken toilet reporting device wins Cape Town’s Sanitation Hackathon

    December 3, 2012

Social Media

  • Twitter under pressure to freeze terrorist accounts

    December 4, 2012

  • The Pope set to become Twitter’s most significant tweep

    December 3, 2012

Gadgets

  • Poor public awareness blamed for Uganda's slow digital TV migration

    December 4, 2012

  • Gambian government give 17 institutions ICT support

    December 4, 2012

November 30, 2012 · by Vince Matinde

Kenyans on Twitter mobilise car pooling in the wake of transport hitch

Share Tweet

Image from standardmedia.co.ke

Stranded Kenyans are this morning using Twitter to carpool their way to various destinations in the wake of the transport strike across the country, using the hashtag #CarPoolKe.

 


The hashtag has been given support by The Red Cross, who have also put their weight behind trying to organise transport for those who do not have means.

The crisis has also seen a crowdmap site launched to help people know where to get cars. The portal maps out areas where drivers are giving rides and uses the #CarPoolKe hashtag to give updates on the platform.

People who have personal vehicles are also posting tweets about help they might offer to those who might be stranded in Nairobi and other areas.

Kenyans in the past have found ingenious ways of using social media to alert and mobilise action in the midst of various issues that are affecting the country.

Kenyans on Twitter (#KOT) have been accused of misusing social media, but this latest move shows that it can act as a vital tool to broadcast messages that can help.

During the transport strike, Kenyan Twitter users raised the alarm over violence that rocked part of the city due to a demonstration by the transport operators. These tweets warned users to avoid certain areas that could be unsafe.

Other traffic apps, such as the K24 Rush Hour and Ma3Route, have been active, letting people share information from wherever they are.

As long as the transport unrest continues, Twitter will still be the favourite medium for Kenyans to coordinate how they are going to commute.

Here are some tweets:

RT @SteevOr: I got space for 2 from Cabanas to BelleVue/Capital Centre #CarpoolKE hit me up if stranded at cabanas

Erik Hersman ‏@whiteafricanNairobians: got a ride, need a ride? Use #CarPoolKE to coordinate on Twitter. https://carpoolke.crowdmap.com

Mwangi ‏@KibaliMoreithi'@KenyaRedCross: #KOT Driver KAJ151N on Thika rd is going picking n dropping #walkingclass kenyans for free. Kudos. Via @ng_bn#carpoolKE'

Share Tweet

FB comments

Latest news

  • 4 minutes ago

    Electronic transactions in Nigeria passes one trillion naira mark

    More than one trillion Naira (US$6,350,000) was transferred electronically in the first half of 2012, but only 1.3 percent of transactions (more)

  • 22 minutes ago

    Gautrain to have full mobile services within two years

    Commuters on South Africa’s Gautrain will have access to full mobile communications services by July 2014 after an agreement was reached (more)

  • 38 minutes ago

    One-fifth of African countries likely to witness Internet switch off

    The 52-hour blackout which hit Syria last week is also possible in another 61 countries, including 12 in Africa, mostly those where the (more)

  • 56 minutes ago

    MTN Group to sell some of its mobile network towers to IHS

    Integrated telecommunications operator MTN Group has said it plans to sell its 1,757 mobile network towers to mobile infrastructure service (more)

  • 51 minutes ago

    Poor public awareness blamed for Uganda's slow digital TV migration

    Uganda’s local pay television operators have expressed disappointment over the manner in which public awareness on digital migration, (more)

  • 59 minutes ago

    iTunes Music Store now in South Africa

    Apple’s iTunes store has arrived in South Africa, but is currently offering music only rather than television shows and films too.

  • 1 hr 36 min ago

    ICASA spokesman casts doubt over SA’s ability to hit 2015 digital migration deadline

    South Africa’s hopes of meeting an internationally agreed deadline to switch from analogue to digital hangs in the balance, according to (more)

  • image
    2 hr 6 min ago

    Interview: Justin Stanford, founding partner, 4Di Capital

    Justin Stanford’s 4Di Capital shows no sign of backing down in the quest to provide venture capital (VC) to the South African tech scene. (more)

  • image
    3 hr 22 min ago

    WhatsApp denies Facebook is set to buy it

    Multi-platform mobile messaging app WhatsApp has refuted claims that social networking giant Facebook is negotiating to acquire it, calling (more)

  • 3 hr 18 min ago

    Gambian government give 17 institutions ICT support

    Vice President Njie Saidy believes “we are not doing badly” after the army, education institutions and a hospital were among the (more)

  • 3 hr 29 min ago

    iPhone 5 coming to Kenya this December

    Apple’s iPhone 5 will be officially launched into the Kenyan market on December 21, as the company works towards fulfilling its promise (more)

  • 4 hr 4 min ago

    NigComSat boss promises Nigerians more bandwidth, denies commission function duplication

    Timasaniyu Ahmed-Rufai, Chief Executive of the Nigeria Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), has urged Nigerians to support the (more)

  • 4 hr 12 min ago

    SMS text messaging helps HIV patients reduce viral load

    Mobile-based communication between HIV patients and doctors can help reinforce observance to drug treatment and reduce the viral load, a (more)

  • 4 hr 48 min ago

    Twitter under pressure to freeze terrorist accounts

    ‘Twitter is soon becoming a tool for terrorist,’ lawmaker says. World’s major microblogging site Twitter is under pressure from (more)

  • image
    4 hr 43 min ago

    Sanitation Hackathon winners believe political will is main obstacle between technology and citizens

    A diverse group of ten innovators are calling on the City of Cape Town to give their technology a chance to solve the region’s toilet (more)

  • 5 hr 24 min ago

    Most South African ISPs support free peering

    While most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in South Africa support free and open peering, four major industry players are not keen.

  • 6 hr 7 min ago

    ITU's Internet regulation treaty talks start in Dubai

    International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a UN agency charged with overseeing global telecommunications regulations, is making efforts (more)

  • 6 hr 22 min ago

    Westcon decreases Datatec’s share price

    Datatec has blamed Hurricane Sandy and “weak conditions” in Europe for its two percent dip in shares on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (more)

  • 6 hr 41 min ago

    SA IT company delivers early Christmas present for Randburg SPCA

    Bytes Document Solutions (BDS), the Xerox distributor in 26 sub-Saharan Africa countries, has provided an early Christmas present to the (more)

  • 7 hr 19 min ago

    Yahoo to scrap out Yahoo! Messenger, its public-chat rooms feature

    Search engine giant Yahoo! has said it will remove the public chat rooms feature of its messaging tool Yahoo! Messenger on Dec 14, and (more)

  • image
    21 hr 41 min ago

    The Pope set to become Twitter’s most significant tweep

    The pope is expected to start tweeting on the feast of Madonna of Guadalupe on December 12 under his new handle @pontifex, viewed by many (more)

  • image
    22 hr 22 min ago

    Nigerian Senate recommends ICT local content development for economic growth

    Ike Ekweremadu, the Nigerian Deputy Senate President, has advised the government to step up its efforts in developing local content in the (more)

  • image
    22 hr 48 min ago

    Broken toilet reporting device wins Cape Town’s Sanitation Hackathon

    Sanitation experts, software developers, journalists and students were among 60 people trying to tackle Cape Town’s toilet problems at (more)

  • image
    23 hr 20 min ago

    Congo rebel group M23 leaves Facebook

    The social media campaign of DRC rebel group M23 has been cut short, with their Facebook Group removed from the social networking site as (more)

  • image
    23 hr 18 min ago

    Eskimi hits 10 million members worldwide

    Social networking site Eskimi has reached the 10 million users milestone, with Nigeria remaining the site’s largest subscriber base with (more)

  • image
    23 hr 28 min ago

    Ushahidi being used to assist Kenya carpools

    Ushahidi, a Kenyan non-profit organisation specialising in free and open source software, has aided the Kenyan carpool Twitter surge by (more)

  • image
    23 hr 24 min ago

    Shanduka’s MTN deal faces legal challenges in Nigeria

    South African Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) group Shanduka has been warned by a legal expert they could face challenges in its agreement (more)

  • image
    23 hr 34 min ago

    LC2 Media granted broadcast rights for ORANGE AFCON 2013

    The broadcasting rights of pan-African football tournament ORANGE AFCON South Africa 2013 have been granted to LC2 Media – AFNEX (African (more)

  • image
    23 hr 41 min ago

    New site for publishing ‘censored’ content is launched

    Global journalism campaigning organisation Reporters sans Frontières (Reporters without Borders) last week unveiled a website under the (more)

  • image
    23 hr 55 min ago

    Nigeria’s Pay TV To develop rich Nigerian and African contents

    Nigeria’s newest pay TV service on the latest Digital Video Broadcast (DVB-T2) technology, GOtv, has expressed its desire to develop and (more)

  • image
    1 day ago

    Sub-Saharan countries experience largest rise in global connectedness

    Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Mozambique, Ghana, Togo, Zambia and Guinea, saw the largest rise in connectedness between 2010 (more)

  • image
    1 day ago

    Nokia launches Lumia series in Accra, Ghana

    Nokia has launched and introduced Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones in Ghana and is targeting the business community before Christmas.

  • image
    1 day ago

    University students win big with Vodacom’s Developer Program

    Six university students from across South Africa have been awarded cash prizes by Vodacom for creating unique app ideas.

  • image
    1 day 1 hours ago

    Telecom Namibia acquires country’s second largest telecoms company

    The Communication Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN), has finally approved Telecom Namibia’s acquisition of Powercom (Pty) Ltd, (more)

  • image
    1 day 1 hours ago

    iROKOtv celebrates first anniversary and SA office is planned for 2013

    iROKOtv, Africa’s biggest online platform for streaming movies, celebrated its first birthday on Saturday, and HumanIPO can reveal a (more)

  • image
    1 day 2 hours ago

    Vodacom’s GDSP to assist business efficiency

    Vodacom officials say its new Global Data Services Platform (GDSP) will allow businesses to be more efficient, removing the need for (more)

  • image
    1 day 2 hours ago

    Kenyan taxi drivers and car owners seize Twitter’s carpooling to make money

    It all started as a way of helping stranded passengers get to work and back home as public service vehicles (PSV) switched off their (more)

  • image
    1 day 2 hours ago

    Digital migration by 2015 to be discussed by Nigerians this week

    Nigeria’s readiness to complete the digital migration by 2015 will be debated at Digital Dialogue Nigeria 2012 in Lagos on Wednesday and (more)

  • image
    1 day 2 hours ago

    88mph and HumanIPO host third “Drink Tank”

    Accelerator programme 88mph and HumanIPO hosted their Drink Tank in Cape Town on Friday, giving entrepreneurs, start-ups and anyone who (more)

  • image
    1 day 2 hours ago

    Kenyans in Diaspora to vote online in 2017

    Although Kenyans in Diaspora have been ruled out from voting in Kenya’s general elections in March next year due to “time and resource (more)

  • image
    1 day 2 hours ago

    Google and Yahoo! domains in Romania taken down by Algerian hacker

    An Algerian hacker going by the name MCA-RCB has taken credit for the defacement of both Google and Yahoo!’s Romanian websites.

  • image
    1 day 3 hours ago

    90 percent of Nairobians to miss switch to digital signal deadline

    Some 90 percent of television set owners in Kenya’s capital Nairobi could miss the switch to digital signal by the end of this year, (more)

  • image
    1 day 3 hours ago

    Africa News Innovation Challenge winners announced

    The winning innovators in the US$1 million Africa News Innovation Challenge, which seeks to encourage African journalists to use digital (more)

  • image
    1 day 3 hours ago

    Wii U launched in SA

    Nintendo has launched its new Wii U games console in South Africa, making it available in time for the Christmas shopping rush.

  • image
    1 day 3 hours ago

    eHealth programmes in Africa lack support from governments

    Research and consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan has reported that eHealth in Africa will continue to face great challenges unless (more)

  • image
    1 day 3 hours ago

    Trina Solar completes health energy programme to help 85K people in Malawi

    Trina Solar, an integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) products, has donated solar modules to three medical centers in Malawi, (more)

  • image
    1 day 3 hours ago

    Nigerian Communications Minister calls for more local content

    Omobola Johnson, the Nigerian Minister for Communication Technology, used the platform at the eNigeria conference to call for production of (more)

  • image
    1 day 4 hours ago

    Ghana’s Fidelity Bank unveils new data centre by IBM

    Due to pressure on its backend digital platform, Ghana’s Fidelity Bank has partnered with IBM to ease the pressure in the face of (more)

  • image
    1 day 4 hours ago

    Nominations for Mauritius’ 2012 ICT Excellence Awards now open

    The Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) in Mauritius is inviting nominations for the 2012 ICT Excellence Awards, (more)

  • image
    1 day 4 hours ago

    SA’s Asset Print launches new online printing product

    One of Cape Town’s printing firms is turning to technology to enhance their business, unveiling a new website to help users get their (more)

  •  Like us on Facebook
  •  Follow on Twitter
  •  Youtube
  • News
  • Startups
  • People
  • Investors
  • News RSS
  • About
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Rainmaker
  • 88mph Garage Nairobi
  • In press
  • Logo & brand
  • Feedback
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy