In These Times, March 13, 2008
By Michelle Chen

While news reports across the world have displayed images of chaos shaking Kenya, an alternative media system driven by ordinary Kenyans is emerging in the East African country to help raise the voices of the seldom heard. The violent aftermath of President Mwai Kibaki's disputed election in December has detonated Kenya's festering ethnic, land and power struggles, leaving hundreds dead and displacing hundreds of thousands. But it has also energized the country's independent media-makers, many of whom see their work as key to overcoming the crisis.

Fusing mass communication with political organizing, the Kenya Independent Media Center (IMC) has aired local activists' perspectives on the violence and its root causes. Through its growing network of independent reporters, IMC Kenya aims to generate "information for action," according to co-founder John Bwakali.

The organization also tries to lead by example through its non-hierarchical structure as a collective

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